Alligators held in bizarre truck crash in Florida
Fish and Wildlife authorities said the driver admitted to killing the creatures
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Two teenagers have been charged for the deaths of two Florida alligators following a car crash near Tampa, Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) has said.
The department, announcing its “case of the week” on Friday, said in a Facebook post that an officer had been alarmed to find two alligators in the back of a crashed SUV, and “wasn’t sure what to expect”, when called to the incident this week.
The officer, who was not named, found two alligators roughly 6 ½ -foot and 8-foot-long, respectively, “hanging from the rear window of an SUV resting on its side”, the FWC said.
“The officer immediately removed them from the vehicle and, just to be safe, secured their mouths using electrical tape,” the post added.
An image shared by the FWC showed a vehicle on its side, and two alligators laid out on the ground next to where the accident happened, with taped mouths.
It said that after questioning two teenagers, the FWC officer discovered that the alligators were killed earlier that day during a fishing trip.
The department said “both suspects loaded the gators into the SUV for transport. Both alligators expired and both individuals were charged accordingly.”
According to The Guardian, the crash happened about 70 miles southeast of Tampa, in Hardee County, and the suspects, aged 18 and 17, were later charged them with misdemeanors.
Although alligators are widely regarded as a nuisance in the state, a permit is needed to hunt the creatures, of which there are an estimated 1.3 million.