The Gator Boys will be proud of this one…A few weeks ago, Officer Alfredo Vargas responded to a call from a resident of Hunter’s Run who found an alligator laying by his front door. Watch Officer Vargas’ body camera video to see how he was able to safely secure the alligator. He learned how to handle/wrestle alligators at the Native Village in Hollywood, Florida. There, he was mentored by Mike “Skeet” Johns and Jimmy Riffle, who remains one of his best friends.
Officer Vargas called FWC and learned that it would be about 30 minutes before a trapper could arrive, and it was likely that the trapper would kill the alligator. Officer Vargas said he didn’t want that to happen given his background with learning how to capture nuisance gators and return them to their natural habitat, which is what the Gator Boys Alligator Rescue does. FWC advised that he could release the reptile elsewhere, so he put the alligator in the back seat of his patrol car and took him out to a canal by Congress Avenue and Miner Road. Officer Vargas removed the tape from around its mouth and put him back in the water. Officer Vargas doesn’t know it yet, but we’ve just made him the department’s official alligator wrestler (kidding but not really).
Youtube Video:
