The animal was spotted at a traffic intersection in Palm Harbor, on Florida’s east coast.
Lieutenant Richard Nalven arrived with a self-made alligator catching device, which he keeps in his patrol car at all times.
“Maybe I bit off a little more than I could chew, but I wasn’t going to back off of the challenge,” he said.
He used his gator catcher to rope the reptile’s mouth, but the suspect refused to cooperate. With the help of a former deputy, the officer threw a raincoat over the alligator’s head to blind it.
“(The former deputy) and I ended up jumping down on top of the thing. I handcuffed his rear legs with my handcuffs,” he said.
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After a few cuts and bruises, they managed to tape the gator’s mouth shut and quiet him down. The alligator was destroyed.
Alligators are noticeably on the move during April and May