A Florida senior citizen was arrested after lassoing a 9-foot gator and tying it up to a handrail before bolting, authorities said.
Robert Colin, 71, was slapped with a felony charge for illegally endangering an alligator, according to an affidavit obtained by clickorlando.com.
He is accused of using a nylon rope to lasso the gator around its upper jaw before he tied it to a handrail above a canal in his home town of Cape Canaveral, according to sheriff’s deputies.
Colin bizarrely contacted deputies around 7:30 a.m. to report that he had found the reptile tied up before fleeing the scene, deputies said.
Surveillance footage from a nearby building operated by SpaceX, however, showed Colin creating a loop with the nylon to trap the gator, authorities said.
Colin was arrested at his home and booked the same day on a charge of illegal killing, possessing or capturing alligators.
After posting the $2,500 bond, Colin told clickorlando.com that he set a clothesline in the canal to protect the turtles there that he and others feed.
Colin said he has previously seen and reported alligators in the canal dating back three years.
”I tied a line here because I saw a snout coming out of this pipe,” Colin demonstrated. “He hooked his upper jaw on it and he tried to take off, but it was already tied here.”
The gator was ultimately euthanized, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office toldthe outlet.