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VIDEO: Body Cam Footage Shows Officer Wrestle Alligator At Front Door Of Florida Home

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (1010 WINS) -- Intense body camera footage shows a cop wrestling an alligator away from the front door of a Florida home.

Boynton Beach Police Department Officer Alfredo Vargas was called to a home because an alligator was laying near a resident's door.

When Vargas first tried to use his catch pole to wrangle the animal, it slipped off.

He quickly managed to loop the cable around the alligator's neck, but it wasn't giving up without a fight.

A jacket was thrown on top of the gator, giving the officer the chance to tape its mouth shut.

Vargas, who has been trained to handle and wrestle gators before becoming a cop, alerted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

FWC told him he could release the reptile, so he did what anyone else would do -- he put the gator in the back seat of his patrol car.

After removing the tape, he released the alligator in a canal behind the home.

Vargas says he wasn't scared to trap it.

"Normally, alligators don't become violent towards humans unless they're fed by humans or they have babies," Vargas said.

And the incident led the department to tease Vargas about having him become their official alligator wrestler.

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