Alligators can often pop up in some of the most unexpected places in the US Deep South, and one of them– a 12-foot-long gator– even picked a McDonald’s parking lot in Macon, Georgia, as a venue. Thankfully, it appears many Georgia locals are used to such incidents; some of them couldn’t wait for the authorities to step in, so they took matters into their own hands and managed to catch the big alligator using a trusty duct tape and some strings.
This rather daring alligator wrangling incident took place in Macon, Georgia, right in a McDonald’s parking lot around the end of September. The 12-foot-long reptile has allegedly been scouring the area for days, likely looking for some easy leftovers, and the locals had had enough. In the video, you can see more than a dozen men surrounding the gator, trying to poke it with sticks and pipes before ultimately managing to wrangle it using strings, shirts, and the coup de grâce– a duct tape wrapped around its snout.
That isn’t to say no one reported the wild gator; it appears plenty of locals did, but according to them, the authorities were slow on the response. In fact, one of the people who caught the alligator stated that, “They [police] waited ’till it could’ve been a potential hazard… They didn’t come until after they seen us actually wrangling it [the gator].” The police have since advised the people of Macon to stay away from wild alligators that wander into public spaces.
While the authorities in Georgia were insistent on leaving the alligator-catching to experts, those who managed to catch it using strings and duct tape were regarded as local heroes. After all, they still managed to catch the alligator without anyone being harmed in the process, including the alligator.
People online found the incident bizarre and funny
Alexus Sparks, the girlfriend of one of the alligator catchers in the McDonald’s parking lot, even proudly shared her boyfriend’s achievements. His boyfriend, brother, and two other men were the main guys who handled the wild alligator, and that’s something not many men can be proud of, which is why they celebrated it.
Meanwhile, comments on the footage were praising the individuals who came together as a community to catch the alligator, “If we came together like this for everything the world would be a better place,” according to an Instagram user. “People came together to rescue the gator from McDonald’s,” joked another IG user.
Others felt bad for the alligator, who probably didn’t know what was happening and why he was suddenly surrounded by dozens of humans. “Anybody else feel kinda bad for it” asks a Reddit user, though the gator is now in safer hands and wasn’t really harmed thanks to the brave men of that particular McDonald’s in Macon, Georgia, “Shirtless reptile rescue specialist is the hero.”
