Florida's Gator Frenzy

摘要

The 10(1/2)-foot alligator poised on the banks of a canal near Miami last Thursday had set off a frenzy. Traffic on the nearby freeway was shut down, nearly 100 onlookers snapped photos and a news helicopter circled overhead. When Todd Hardwick—alligator trapper extraordinaire—arrived at the scene with a police escort, he leapt out of his truck and raced toward the beast. Wielding a heavy-duty fishing rod, he cast a line bearing a three-pronged hook that caught on the gator's hide. The animal quickly ensnared itself. As it thrashed about, Hardwick nabbed it with another line, then stuck it with a harpoon and lassoed it with a lariat. With the help of a half-dozen cops, he hauled the 400-pound bull up the hill, jumped on top of it and cinched its jaws shut with electrical tape.