A Florida police officer used Cowboy tactics to capture a wild alligator that appeared on the side of the road in Southwest Miami-Dade County on Tuesday.
Miami-Dade police officer Manuel Orol responded to a call about the six-and-a-half-foot alligator near Southwest 136th St. and 97th Avenue, Local 10 News reported. Video from the outlet’s Sky10 helicopter show officers first attempted to use their police cruisers to corral the animal before Orol got out of his cruiser.
The officer told the press that the alligator was lurking in an area where children frequently rode their bikes and was eyeing a brown cat when officers arrived. “The gator was looking at a brown cat that was right there. That’s someone’s pet. That’s someone’s animal,” he said, CBS News reported.
Orol made several attempts to wrangle the 200-pound alligator before successfully capturing the animal with a tow rope and then using his cruiser to keep it away from the street. (RELATED: Family Demands Investigation Into Fake Memorial For Autistic Son Reportedly Displayed At Los Angeles Middle School)
“It’s a soft rope. I was able to lasso it around its top legs, and it was in the midsection where I was able to hold it and secure it so it wouldn’t go out into the street,” Orol told the press, Local 10 reported. “I just made a split second decision saying, ‘I gotta hold this gator, I gotta contain it,’ and that’s what I went by.”
Miami Dade officers waited with the alligator until Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) trappers arrived. Officers covered the gator with a towel allowing FWC trappers to pin the animal and tape its snout shut.
An 85-year-old Fort Pierce woman died on Monday after a 10-foot alligator lunged out of the water and attacker her. FWC trappers struggled but eventually captured the alligator, believed to be between 600-700 pounds, WPBF reported.
Alligator trapper Robert Lilly told the outlet he had to fight to get the alligator out of the lake. “Snagged him on the bottom. He never surfaced. He stayed down the whole time. Got a second hook in him and then a hard line in him so we could get him up,” he said.