HARDEE COUNTY, Fla. — Officers made an unusual discovery earlier this month while responding to a report of a crash in Florida: two alligators “hanging from the rear window of an SUV,” according to officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Authorities shared the incident Friday morning on the FWC Facebook page, calling it the “case of the week.”
The incident happened Dec. 9 when a Ford Explorer being driven by a teen with another in the passenger seat crashed in Hardee County, the Miami Herald reported.
“When our officer was asked to assist with a vehicle accident involving two people and two alligators, he wasn’t sure what to expect,” officials said on Facebook. When he got to the scene, the officer found the SUV on its side along with two alligators, one measuring 6 1/2 feet long and the other 8 feet long, officials said.
“The officer immediately removed them from the vehicle and, just to be safe, secured their mouths using electrical tape,” according to FWC. The Herald reported that the officer took the precautionary step because “one of them was still slightly moving.”
In a report obtained by the Herald, officials said the SUV was being driven by an 18-year-old who had gone fishing earlier in the day with a 17-year-old companion. The younger teen killed the alligators with a large rock after they began chasing their lines, according to the Herald.
The teens told officials they loaded the alligators into the SUV to transport them, although it was not immediately clear what they planned to do with them.
The teens have since been charged with misdemeanors for taking the alligators without a permit, the Herald reported.