Don’t try this at home. On Sunday, April 21, Mike Dragich was filmed wrangling an 8-foot alligator barehanded on a busy street in Jacksonville, Florida. The footage shows a shoe-less Dragich pursuing the gator while wearing shorts, a trucker cap, and a cut-off T-shirt. Dragich attempts to grab the gator by the tail before pouncing on its back and straddling it with his legs.
“He was running towards the cops, and a crowd of people, and everybody was screaming,” Dragich told FOX35. “I felt like Batman!”
Eventually, Dragich manages to tape the reptile’s mouth shut. Then, he hoists the critter into the air like a naughty toddler and walks away with it.
Despite the casual nature of the video, Dragich is actually a licensed trapper, among other professions including MMA fighting. He has a history of grappling with big alligators, which has earned him the nickname “The Blue Collar Brawler.”
He was called to the scene by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission (FWC) through the agency’s nuisance alligator program. He told News4Jax that he was at a nearby minor league ice hockey game when the FWC called him, hence his lack of specialized equipment.
Read: A Pack of Wolves Took Down an Elk and Ate It on a High School Football Field in Montana
“It was only five minutes from the game, so I literally left the game, caught the alligator, and then went back to the game,” said Dragich.
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