Footage posted to Instagram shows the huge gator with its jaws and feet tied being picked up by several Ocoee police officers after someone reported the reptile wandering around a residential street.
As officers attempt to put the restrained animal into the back of the pickup truck, it suddenly lashes around, whipping its snout at the officer, connecting a headbutt to a wildlife officer’s face, which knocks him out unconscious onto the ground.
Then it smacks another wildlife officer and an Oscoee police officer with its tail. The bound alligator then scoots out of the pick up truck and flops onto the ground.
Authorities were attempting to transport the displaced alligator to a safer area when it knocked the officer standing nearby first then the other two officers standing nearby with its wagging tail, according to the Daily Mail.
“The gator flipped back and head-butted the guy, knocked him to the ground. At that point, it was kind of free and whacked the police officers with its tail,” neighbor Walter Day said in an interview after the incident.
“It walked for 20 steps, and then it just kind of sat down and walked for 20 steps and then sat down. It was kind of odd to watch, ” he said, describing the alligator making an apparent escape.
Before head butting the officer, neighbors stood outside watching and recording the alligator with their cell phones as it crept through their yards.
One woman describe almost walking outside, but then seeing the alligator on her doorstep. Had she walked outside, she would have been on the doorstep with the alligator.
“We were like, ‘No, go back in!’ So she closed the door, ” Day recalled during his interview.
Experts say the reptile was likely wandering that far from water in search of a mate or meal.
Although the gator didn’t make it very far during its escape attempt, we’ve got to give the officers at the Ocoee Police Department credit where its due.
No gun shots were ever fired and the gator eventually found a new home after wildlife officers transported it to a nearby lake.
