A 10-foot alligator, known as Pepe the Gator, was sunning on a North Carolina highway when police arrested and rescued it. They “charged” the creature, believing it to be a “dinosaur.”
Clearly disregarding the “no loitering or lounging on roadways” sign, witnesses said he was simply chilling and snapping, according to a lighthearted press release issued by the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office last week. “Pepe has been cited for traffic obstruction, public loitering with the intent to sunbathe, and suspicion of being a dinosaur without the appropriate paperwork.”
The NC Wildlife Resources Commission officers and responding deputies who received the report on May 25 were able to safely remove Pepe, but not before they posed for photos straddling him like rodeo cowboys.
He weighed 400 pounds and was 10 feet long. The Onslow County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, Trevor Dunnell, stated on Thursday that “he was an absolute monster.”
“They did a fantastic job of wrangling him.”
Dunnell used the fact that Pepe is still uncovered in the photo despite three adult males standing on top of him to illustrate the gator’s size.
“The picture really doesn’t do it justice, I mean 10 feet … 10 feet is a basketball goal, that is a massive creature,” he stated.
Even though 10 feet might seem like a lot, the largest gator ever measured was 14 feet and 3 and a half inches.
According to Dunnell, Pepe’s infamous death roll is triggered by eye contact, so deputies and wildlife officials covered his eyes with a towel and sealed his lips with electrical tape.
“It was definitely some MacGyver stuff they had to use,” he stated. “He may not have a good time during the removal, but he was playfully enough about it later to understand that, ‘Hey, man, you gotta do what you gotta do.’”
Online users who wished the police had simply left Pepe alone sent backlash to the office, according to Dunnell. However, Dunnell quickly pointed out that abandoning the reptile on the side of the road might have put the gator and locals at risk.
“You never know what can happen when kids are running around,” he stated. “And the gator could wind up in the middle of the road. It could hurt drivers but it could hurt him, too.”
Dunnell expressed his want to view body camera footage of Pepe’s arrest. Dunnell stated that the two deputies and the wildlife officer in the photo are delighted to be riding him and that they will know who to contact if they come across another Pepe.
“But some deputies were absolutely not fine,” he stated. “When they got back, they were saying, ‘You’re not going to catch me on that thing. I’m not going to go anywhere near it!’”
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Dunnell believes it was a hot day and that Pepe was searching for a nice place to cool off because he was so far from home.
“How far he wandered is anybody’s guess,” he stated. “It must’ve been several miles at least.”
According to Dunnell, they decided not to charge Pepe after more research. Rather, they took him to a boat ramp at adjacent Camp Geiger, a Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune satellite facility.
He joked, “I think we’ve touched base with the gator and let him know we dropped the charges.”
“Pepe’s back to his normal routine, he’s hanging out near the beach and lounging in his natural habitat, hunting for his food and looking for a girlfriend.”
