A 71-year-old Florida resident, Robert Colin, found himself in legal trouble after he lassoed a 9-foot alligator and tied it to a handrail before fleeing the scene. According to an affidavit obtained by clickorlando.com, Colin was charged with a felony for endangering an alligator illegally. The senior citizen used a nylon rope to lasso the gator around its upper jaw and tied it above a canal in Cape Canaveral.
Sheriff’s deputies were alerted to the situation by Colin himself, who called them at around 7:30 a.m. to report that he had found the reptile already tied up. However, surveillance footage from a nearby SpaceX building revealed that it was indeed Colin who created a loop with the nylon to trap the gator in the first place.
Colin was arrested at his home and booked on charges of illegally killing, possessing, or capturing alligators. Following the arrest, he told clickorlando.com that he had set up a clothesline in the canal to protect turtles that are regularly fed by him and others. He also claimed to have previously reported alligators in the same area over the past three years.
I tied a line here because I saw a snout coming out of this pipe,” Colin demonstrated while explaining the incident. He hooked his upper jaw on it and he tried to take off, but it was already tied here.” Despite his motives, the captured alligator was ultimately euthanized, as confirmed by a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.
