This guy watched a few too many Steve Irwin videos in his day.
You know, there’s fine line between being brave and just plain dumb.
We’ve all seen the headlines, and read the stories about alligators lurking in the water, and attacking people passing by on land. Not to mention, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that gators are incredibly dangerous, and any attack can potentially be deadly.
I have zero sympathy for somebody who willingly decides to mess with an alligator. None, whatsoever…
This guy right here decided to roll the dice with a gator… and it nearly cost him his life.
About a decade ago, Fred Boyce was the subject of this viral video in Carteret County, North Carolina, after he tried to wrangle an alligator… and failed MISERABLY. And now, it’s going viral again.
Boyce is a reptile expert from Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium, so rather than wait for animal control who was 2 hours away to show up and properly remove the gator, he decided to take matters into his own hands… in his nicest pair of khakis.
In this video, you can see the older gentleman approach an alligator sitting in the ditch near a highway, and toss a towel over its eyes. Not his first rodeo? It would seem so…
His first warning sign should’ve been how ferociously the gator snapped back when the towel hit his face. I mean, duh? It’s just chilling, sunbathing, and enjoying the peace and quiet, and all of a sudden the lights are out. Wouldn’t you be mad too?
However, the man decided to keep on approaching, and even attempted to straddle the gator, and that’s when things really get ugly.
The gator quickly snaps back at him, knocking him on his back, and then immediately turn and grabs hold of his arm. It quickly lets go and he’s able to create some distance with his foot, but the damage was done.
Needless to say, the man is lucky to be able to get up and walk away, but hey, at least he went insanely viral in North Carolina.
Check it out:
The man even jokes at the beginning how they “have a bunch of tourniquets for ya” if things go south… well, they did.
Fred recalled the incident with local news:
“I was definitely overmatched, I was little out of my weight class there.
I kind of coached these guy, they were kind of hefty guys who probably weighed as much as the alligator each, and I thought if they jumped on his back, they’d provide the weight. Problem was, as soon as I grabbed the alligator I knew it was gonna explode.
My arm was in his mouth, there was little time to think… fortunately it didn’t clamp down with full force, it just gave me what amounted to a lovely nip from this gator.”
He was treated at the hospital and released, suffering only a minor arm injury.
Lucky SOB…
