{"id":242940,"date":"2026-04-23T07:40:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/242940\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T07:40:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:40:44","slug":"video-shows-florida-officer-wrangling-alligator-in-parking-lot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/242940\/","title":{"rendered":"Video shows Florida officer wrangling alligator in parking lot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMONTH. SO MARK YOUR CALENDARS MAY 21ST, WE\u2019LL TAKE A LOOK AT THIS. WEST PALM BEACH POLICE OFFICER SEEN WRANGLING AN ALLIGATOR IN A PARKING LOT. AND THIS ONE\u2019S DIFFERENT. THE WAY HE DID IT. YOU SEE THE GATOR WITH A BATON AT FIRST, BUT THIS IS WHERE THE DIFFERENCE COMES IN. HE WAS USING HIS BARE HANDS TO CLOSE HIS MOUTH. THERE. ANOTHER OFFICER THEN MOVES IN. THEY\u2019RE ABLE TO GET A BAND AROUND ITS SNOUT, BUT TAKE A CLOSER LOOK. YOU\u2019LL SEE THAT GATOR\u2019S MOUTH OPEN A LITTLE BIT HERE. AND THAT OFFICER WITH HIS BARE HANDS CLOSES IT. CRAZY, RIGHT? SHARE THIS. ON SOCIAL MEDIA SAYING WELL ROUNDED POLICING MEANS BEING READY FOR ANYTHING, EVEN IF IT HAS SCALES AND A SERIOUS ATTITUDE.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>WATCH: Video shows West Palm Beach officers wrangling alligator in parking lot<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768879104_731_wpbf.png\" class=\"lazyload lazyload-in-view branding\" alt=\"WPBF logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tUpdated: 3:41 PM EDT Apr 22, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/article\/hearst-television-news-policy-statements\/14471973\" class=\"editorial-standards border-left\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Editorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA West Palm Beach police officer was seen wrangling an alligator in a parking lot, as captured in a video shared by the department on social media.  The video shows the officer approaching the alligator with what appears to be a baton. He then drops the baton and takes control of the animal using just his hands.  Another officer steps in to assist, and together they manage to secure a band around the alligator\u2019s snout.  The West Palm Beach Police Department shared the video online, writing, &#8220;Well-rounded policing means being ready for anything, even when it has scales and a serious attitude.&#8221;Stay up to date: The latest headlines and weather from WPBF 25Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tWEST PALM BEACH, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>A West Palm Beach police officer was seen wrangling an alligator in a parking lot, as captured in a video shared by the department on social media.  <\/p>\n<p>The video shows the officer approaching the alligator with what appears to be a baton. He then drops the baton and takes control of the animal using just his hands.  <\/p>\n<p>Another officer steps in to assist, and together they manage to secure a band around the alligator\u2019s snout.  <\/p>\n<p>The West Palm Beach Police Department shared the video online, writing, &#8220;Well-rounded policing means being ready for anything, even when it has scales and a serious attitude.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Stay up to date: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The latest headlines and weather from WPBF 25<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/article\/get-wpbf-25-news-on-the-go\/999316\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTH. SO MARK YOUR CALENDARS MAY 21ST, WE\u2019LL TAKE A LOOK AT THIS. WEST PALM BEACH POLICE OFFICER&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7863,913,53282,3976,11853,28,30,29,6686,6951,5127,24143,107234,21275,26002,1045,221,6691],"class_list":{"0":"post-242940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-alligator","9":"tag-animal","10":"tag-baton","11":"tag-control","12":"tag-department","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-florida-headlines","15":"tag-florida-news","16":"tag-late-headline","17":"tag-late-news-update","18":"tag-news-app","19":"tag-parking-lot","20":"tag-snout","21":"tag-social-medium","22":"tag-up-to-date","23":"tag-video","24":"tag-weather","25":"tag-wpbf-25get"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}