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12-foot, 463-pound alligator found trying to cross highway in Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A massive alligator measuring 12 feet long and weighing 463 pounds was recently captured in Florida.

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The Tallahassee Police Department and the Florida Highway Patrol received reports shortly after midnight on June 3 that the alligator was wandering on Interstate 10, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. Responders closed one of the exits so drivers wouldn't hit the huge reptile.

Police called the alligator removal company Vaughan's Gators to remove the gator from the highway.

"I've been the trapper here in Leon County since April 2010 and that was the third-biggest gator I've captured," Broderick Vaughan, the owner of Vaughan's Gators, told the Democrat. "That was a pretty big one, and he wasn't happy that we were trying to remove him."

Vaughan managed to tape the gator’s jaws shut and then hoist it into a truck. The alligator was likely hit by a vehicle, Vaughan said. Because of the severity of its injuries, it had to be euthanized a few days later.