Simone Jasper
The Charlotte Observer
CHARLESTON, S.C. — An alligator was roaming near a South Carolina school — until a group of fearless officers stepped in.
The animal control workers wrangled the gator and jumped on top of it, according to video shared online.
“Not your everyday arrest,” the Charleston Police Department wrote May 10 on Facebook.
Footage shows officers sneaking up on a gator as it crosses a driveway. That’s when one of them attaches a rope-like object to the reptile’s mouth.
The gator is seen thrashing about as two officers tackle the animal — holding it down and wrestling with it for about half of the three-minute video.
https://www.facebook.com/CityofCharlestonPD/videos/2179969675492864/
The cold-blooded critter was caught May 9 along Boillat Lane, a street near the Daniel Island School for kindergarten to eighth-grade students.
The Charleston area, a tourist hotspot, is no stranger to getting scaly surprises.
In 2020, barking dogs led one resident to an alligator at her front door. Two years earlier, a 7-foot alligator was knocking outside a North Charleston family’s home, McClatchy News and The Island Packet reported.
Alligators are found along the Southeastern U.S. coast, including marshy areas in South Carolina. Wildlife experts say the animals can weigh 1,000 pounds and measure longer than 14 feet, depending on the environmental conditions.
While gators rarely attack people, you should avoid contact with the animals to help stay safe, according to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources and the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory at the University of Georgia.