POLK COUNTY, Fla. – A 911 call about an alligator in a storage shed turned out to be full of hot air when the deputy who responded figured out that the reptile in question was actually just a discarded pool floatie.
Records show a woman called 911 around 1:50 p.m. on Aug. 24 saying that her husband was retrieving boxes from a storage shed outside their Winter Haven apartment when he spotted what he thought was an actual gator and asked his wife to call for help.
Deputy Trexler went to a call about an alligator in a storage shed. He came…he saw…he conquered the beast. He even knocked the wind out of it. Literally. The gator turned out to be a pool floatie. #PCSO#Crikey#TheGatorHunter#TuneInNextTimeWhenHeWrestlesAPoolNoodle pic.twitter.com/5ZXRnG3tBW
— Polk County Sheriff 🚔 (@PolkCoSheriff) September 9, 2020
“My husband went to the storage garage and there was an alligator locked in there,” she said.
She couldn’t provide an exact size for the animal.
“He says it’s big, he says it’s big,” she said.
She noted that the storage shed was located near the complex’s pool.
Pictures posted to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office Twitter account show Master Deputy Mark Trexler posing with the inflatable apex predator, one hand pinching its snout and the other gripping the handle on its neck.
While Trexler may have “conquered the beast,” as the post reads, the floatie appeared to have sustained some battle wounds beforehand judging by the duct tape near its tail.
The sheriff’s office topped off its post with some funny hashtags making light of the situation: #TheGatorHunter and #TuneInNextTimeWhenHeWrestlesAPoolNoodle.
Commenters were just as quick with the jokes.
“I hope he got a dozen donuts for his bravery,” one woman wrote.
“Looks like this call went ‘swimmingly,’” another man quipped.
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