Most of us wouldn’t know what to do if we came snout to snout with a gigantic alligator thrashing about in a swimming pool.
Personally, I’d probably just run inside and shout at it to ‘go away’ through the smallest possible crack in the window.
But then I am not Paul Bedard, an apparently fearless member of Florida’s GatorBoys Alligator Rescue and a man who has described splashing around with an 8ft 8in gator as ‘actually fun’.
Plucky Paul was called out to a job at a Parkland swimming pool, where ‘an 8 to 9 foot alligator’ was having a bit of a paddle.
Taking to the GatorBoys Instagram account, Paul wrote about his encounter with the toothy pool pest:
Got an e-gator call this morning about an 8 to 9 foot alligator in a swimming pool up in Parkland. The gator had walked through the screen and into the pool.
I haven’t had a good-sized gator in a swimming pool in probably a year, so I was kind of looking forward to this when I got the call. These are actually fun because the gator can’t go anywhere and the water’s almost always crystal clear.
So all I have to do is jump in the water play around with him until he’s tired and I can either hold his mouth shut and put a snare on it and tape it, or if he [sic] super energetic I can get him tired enough where I can just pick him up without the tape and carry him out in the yard and then tape him up once I get there.
Paul then proceeded to describe how he managed to capture the ‘super mellow’ scaly beast:
This guy was super mellow didn’t really give me a hard time at all, I couldn’t get him to spin on me he really wanted nothing to do with me. I simply made a frontal catch put a snare on his mouth and taped him up. Then finally got him to expend some energy….
I didn’t want to pull him out of the water until he was tired, because he’ll usually go into a death roll and smash himself up on the concrete or, if he’s not taped, bite the concrete or something so it’s always better to make him expend that energy in the water where is not going to get banged up.
Paul continued:
He ended up being 8 feet 8 in, and didn’t really give me a hassle at all, it was basically as smooth and easy as it ever gets. Thank you Lord, much appreciated.
Paul’s remarkably casual yet terrifying pool story was illustrated to great effect by various pictures of him posing with the mighty gator; at one point holding it aloft as easily as if it had been a pool float.
Amazing stuff. But do remember, Paul is a professional badass and you really, really shouldn’t try this at home…
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.