iStockphoto / passion4nature
While most people associate gators with Florida and Louisiana, the North American alligator range extends from Texas to Florida and stretches up to North Carolina.
They are found all throughout the Southeast and grow to monstrous sizes all over. Case in point, this 9-foot alligator that was trapped in a backyard in Sunset Beach, North Carolina on the coast that had to be removed by officers.
On May 6th, officers received a phonecall about a large alligator stuck in a backyard. What had happened was the 9-foot alligator wandered into the backyard through a gate and that automatic gate slammed shut behind it, trapping it inside.
If it wanted to, that alligator could have easily torn the metal fence apart. Luckily for the homeowner and the neighbors, officers arrived before the gator lost its cool.
The Sunse Beach Police Department shared an update vai Facebook detailing their extraction of the alligator from the backyard:
The update from the officers reminded the public that alligators are a protected species in North Carolina. It advised caution and suggested never approaching gators in the wild. But in the instance that an alligator poses a threat to humans or itself, citizens should always alert the police so they can relocate the alligator safely.
The homeowner’s next-door neighbor also captured images and footage of the Sunset Beach PD removing the alligator that had gotten stuck after the gate slammed shut:
Once on the scene, the officers were able to capture the alligator without harming it. They then relocated the alligator to the nearby neighborhood pond, where it normally resides, without any further incident.
The alligator only posed a threat to the family because it was stuck in the backyard. And it was a danger to itself being trapped in an unfamiliar setting.
Next-door neighbor Linda Townsend referred to the officers as ‘alligator wrestlers’ and said the ‘fearless’ PD were able to capture, examine, relocated, and release the alligator from the backyard unharmed.
Getting it out of there and back to the pond as quickly as possible was the best course of action.