A New Yorker recently hired as a police officer in the Tampa Bay area is going viral for his reaction while doing one of the most Florida things in the state: wrangling an alligator.
Officer Christopher Martinez, who joined the Largo Police Department in November 2024, received his first alligator nuisance call on Thursday. The city is about a 20-mile drive west of Downtown Tampa.
To commemorate the special moment, Largo Police caught the entire encounter on camera.
“While most of our team handled it like seasoned pros, one of our newer officers from New York experienced his very first run-in with a gator, and it showed,” read the Facebook reel caption. “Let’s just say there was some jumping and maybe some squealing.”
And, that “jumping” and “squealing” didn’t come from the alligator — throughout the video, Martinez tried to psych himself up with the help of other officers, wearing gloves, asking for step-by-step instructions, taking deep breaths and making sure another officer would “take him back” if the handoff went badly.
“You have big teeth, I have tiny hands,” Martinez told the alligator before his fellow officer hands him the reptile.
The handoff lasted just long enough for a photo op and ended with Martinez screaming and running away as the alligator whipped around in his hands.
As any alligator video does, the clip went viral, with Martinez’s priceless interaction gathering over 1.2 million views and amassing over 54,000 likes, 11,000 shares and 3,600 comments as of June 12.
No animals were harmed in the video, as Largo Police said the alligator was released in a wilderness area after officers responded.
