If you ever, ever-ever-ever
If you ever, ever see a whale
You must never, never-never-never
You must never, never pull its tail…
Or so goes the popular children’s poem. The poet used ‘whale’ as a symbol of danger. It could have just as easily been a tiger or an alligator, but whale rhymes with tail and so whale it was.
A 32-year-old man in Florida didn’t seem to care, though, and decided to jump into an alligator enclosure within a tourist attraction, wrestle the reptile (yes, wrestle!) and then steal it.
The bizarre tale doesn’t end there, of course. The gentleman who goes by the name of William ‘Bubba’ Hodge said he wanted to ‘teach it a lesson’. Officers of the Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety spotted Bubba taking the poor reptile to a nearby business, tossing it over the roof, and then slamming it on the ground by pulling its tail.
“The alligator was returned to management of Congo River Golf from where Hodge claimed to have stolen it after a brief wrestling match,” the department wrote in their Facebook post and shared a hazy image of the hapless reptile on the pavement.
“Our officers observed William “Bubba” Hodge carrying an alligator down A1A last night. Hodge was arrested after he was seen trying to throw the alligator onto the roof of a business and slamming it on the ground by its tail. Hodge was charged with five offences, including the felonies of Animal Cruelty, Possession/Injury of an Alligator, and Burglary. The alligator was returned to management of Congo River Golf from where Hodge claimed to have stolen it after a brief wrestling match,” the department wrote in their Facebook post and share a hazy image of the hapless reptile on the pavement.
The officers intervened and arrested Bubba around 3 am in the morning, reported Fox 35.
The gentleman is now cooling his heels in jail while he faces several charges, including possession and injury of an alligator, unarmed burglary of an occupied dwelling, theft and criminal mischief. And while Bubba said he wanted to teach the gator a lesson, a resident that Fox 35 interviewed after the incident said the “gator should have taught him a lesson” instead. And what lesson might that have been? If you ever, ever-ever-ever; if you ever, ever see a…
See you later, alligator?
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