(NECN/WESH: Stephanie Kolp, Lake County, Fla.) - A Florida school resource officer spotted a 7-foot long, scaly intruder near the perimeter of Clermont Middle School on Thursday and wrestled it before it could come into contact with the students.
Most people wouldn't dare wrestle with an alligator and then there's Jessica McGregor, a Lake County sheriff's deputy who could probably take on alligator trapping as a side job.
"...Worked him back and forth, got him tired enough, so he wouldn't react too much when I got on him to tape his jaw shut," said McGregor.
Tuesday afternoon she started hearing complaints about a gator near school grounds.
"Yeah, I didn't want to risk the gator getting into the residential neighborhoods that were right there," said McGregor.
So she took matters into her own hands...literally.
A school employee took cell phone video of her wrestling the 7-foot, 250 pound reptile.
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McGregor says first she lassoed the gator, then she put tape around its mouth.
"But I also tapped over his eyes...because their eyes actually retract down into their heads, so they're not damaged," said Mgregor. "So that he wasn't upset, and it actually calmed him down and made it less stressful for the alligator while we were waiting."
McGregor says her expertise comes from her childhood growing up in Lake County.
"We had a bit of acreage and a lot of water... if we saw them out there," said McGregor. "We'd just go play with them move them around...so it was something we did growing up."
McGregor successfully tied the gator up, until an actual trapper arrived, and then the gator was turned over to the Florida Wildlife Commission.
