Florida man uses recycling bin to catch large alligator outside his house
Not all heroes wear capes – some wear slides and socks. A US army veteran who has gone viral online for trapping a large Florida alligator in wheelie bin says he “used the front like a hippo mouth”, to scare the reptile into submission.
When 26-year-old Eugene Bozzi’s daughter told him “Hey, this big alligator just hissed at me!”, he thought it must be a baby, the New York Post reports. When he saw that it was 1.8 metres long, he was daunted but not deterred.
“I said, ‘No, I’m removing it because he’s probably hungry,’” he told USA Today. “The only thing that came to my mind was to protect my kids and the other children outside.”
So he grabbed the recycling bin, sliding it along the floor, lid open, towards the alligator, which was at least as long as the large trash can. In a video uploaded to YouTube – titled “The Black Dundee” – the open-mouthed alligator is facing the bin head-on, and at first shuffles slowly backwards, hissing. Eventually, there’s a standoff – the alligator stops moving backwards and Bozzi holds the bin in place.
A crowd has gathered, and Bozzi asks that someone let him know when the animal’s head goes inside the bin. Then Bozzi rushes forward, and flips the bin’s blue lid on to the gator’s head. Sun streaks across the camera. The gator hisses and flails straight into the bin. It tries to backtrack, swishing its tail madly, but Bozzi tips the bin upright and the gator’s tail disappears just before the lid shuts on it.
“I was frightened when I had it in it, because it was so powerful. And I didn’t expect that, it was pushing out, whipping its tail around,” Bozzi told local news channel WESH 2.
Denise Sparks was inside her home when she heard the commotion. “I would have been gator food, I would have fainted,” she told WESH 2. “I said, ‘What in the world is going on?’ I heard boom boom boom.”
“I don’t know the procedures, so I did it my own way,” Bozzi said.
As the video went viral online, many people noted that Bozzi had pulled off the feat while wearing slides and socks.
A Twitter user called InfiniteStylz dissected the Bozzi’s choice of apparel. “He had no intentions of failing,” he wrote. “I present to you Exhibit A: flip-flops and white socks (for increased speed, balance, and leverage) Exhibit B: Solid Black Durag (Because, why not) This combination causes any person to level up and become cool calm and perform under pressure.”
Bozzi’s feat makes him a formidable addition to the hallowed halls of “Florida Man” – a term encapsulating the number of wild adventures had by people in the state – and the headlines that follow. Many involve alligators
Bozzi eventually wheeled the bin down to a nearby retention pond where he tipped it over and ran away – before popping back briefly once the animal was gone to retrieve the bin.
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