Boynton Beach Officer Becomes Department's 'Official Alligator Wrestler'

A Boynton Beach police officer wrangled an alligator and released it back into the wild earlier this July. Officer Alfredo Vargas had been previously trained in handling gators, and didn’t want the little guy to be killed by a trapper.

According to a Facebook post by the Boynton Beach Police Department, Vargas initially responded to a call of an alligator in front of a resident’s front door. After being told he would have to wait for a trapper to arrive – a trapper who would likely kill the alligator – Vargas safely wrestled the alligator into his patrol car and released it into a nearby canal.

“Officer Vargas doesn’t know it yet, but we’ve just made him the department’s official alligator wrestler (kidding but not really),” the post said. Credit: Boynton Beach Police Department via Storyful