A newly transferred police officer from New York got a crash course in Florida wildlife when his first alligator call ended in a panicked reaction, which is now snapping up laughs online.
Officer Christopher Martinez, a new hire with the Largo Police Department, is going viral for his startled reaction to being handed a wriggling juvenile alligator found on a residential lawn.
Martinez’s frightened reaction during his first-ever gator call, caught on video by colleagues, has amassed more than 1.4 million views on Facebook since Wednesday.
In the clip, Martinez nervously takes deep breaths as a female officer hands him a hissing, taped-mouthed gator. He warns her to be ready to intervene if things go wrong.
“I will drop you if you drop him,” the female officer jokes.
“You have big teeth. I have tiny fingers,” Martinez told the reptile before finally clutching the wiggling animal, which flailed in his hands.
Martinez’s fellow officers advised him to hold the reptile tight as he smiled for a photo.
“Take a picture of me, for the love of God,” a heavy-breathing Martinez begged his howling colleagues.
After the photo op, Martinez handed the reptile back to the female cop and ran away following more flails by the gator.
“In the end, the gator was safely removed and relocated to a proper area. No officers were harmed, and Officer Martinez, our NY transplant, received his official welcome to Florida,” the department wrote on Facebook.
More than 2,700 people have commented on the video, laughing along with Martinez’s colleagues.
“New Yorkers all hard core until a baby dinosaur arrives,” one person wrote.
“Come on, you got new york rats that big,” another said.
“Even the gator was like, ‘dude,’” a third person chuckled.
Other viewers gave Martinez a new nickname.
“He will henceforth be dubbed ‘Gator,’” someone said.
“Dude is NEVER going to EVER live that down. Call him gator boy,” another added.
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