Many are hitting the malls for last-minute holiday shopping — including a large alligator.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook that its deputies were called to remove the 12-foot, 600-lb. alligator at Coconut Point Mall in Estero, Fla., on Thursday.
The department said it worked with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to safely remove the alligator from the premises, and shared video of at least a half-dozen officers and volunteers helping to transport the alligator from the premises.
In the video, the department showed authorities lifting the alligator from the ground. Officers could be seen lifting the gator off its feet and its very long tail as they placed it in the bed of a truck.
A rescued alligator missing the upper half of its jaw has found a new home in Florida Park
“It really is never dull when you’re on patrol here in Lee County, huh?” the department said in a post. “If you can’t wait to get into law enforcement, we promise excitement and a great workout here at #TeamLCSO.”
The department also shared a photo of officers posing next to a captured alligator on the grass outside a shopping center near the wetland. In the photo, the alligator was tied with ropes as they crouched down for the photo.
The department did not say where the gator might have come from, but told local station ABC7 that the large gator would be moved to safer waters.
Florida police are investigating after an alligator was seen carrying a dead human body down a street
This isn’t the only gator spotted in Florida neighborhoods this year. According to WTSP, a 7-foot gator was spotted on a public walking trail at Brooker Creek Preserve in Tarpon Springs, causing the area to be closed until it was removed. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office joked, according to WTSP, that he was “probably getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner like the rest of us.”
In an even darker incident in September, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office closed a stretch of street in unincorporated Largo, Florida, after someone called authorities to say they saw an alligator carrying a person in its jaws. They eventually found the alligator near the waterway and removed it.
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American alligators are commonly found in freshwater lakes and slow-moving rivers and in brackish habitats, but rarely in saltwater, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The largest male gator observed was a 14-foot, 3 1/2-inch male from Lake Washington in Brevard County, and alligators primarily eat rough fish, snakes, turtles, small mammals, and birds.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education