Latest news with #Dragich
Indianapolis Star
12-05-2025
- Indianapolis Star
Florida alligator moves through neighborhood, gets head stuck in lawn chair: Watch video
Ever seen an alligator take on a lawn chair? That's a normal day in Florida. Local authorities, including the Lee County Sheriff's Office, were called to collect a feisty alligator seen picking a fight with an orange lawn chair on a resident's front porch on Friday, May 9. (Spoiler alert: The alligator lost more than the fight.) Footage of the low-stakes battle was captured by the resident's doorbell camera, which shows the gator moving door-to-door in Tortuga, a residential neighborhood in Fort Myers, before it was apprehended by a state alligator trapper. "Knock knock! Your visitor is chomping at the bit to come in!!" the sheriff's office wrote on Facebook. "Our 3rd precinct deputies responded to a call this morning of a suspicious…. Gator knocking on doors within the Tortuga community." The trapper, with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was able to wrangle the reptile off the porch and into a pickup truck with help from a couple of deputies. "Thankfully, he was secured and handed over to the trapper safely," the post reads. "How's that for taking a BITE outta crime?" Watch: From a loose emu to surfing dog: Watch the biggest animal moments caught on video in 2024 While alligator sightings are fairly common across the Sunshine State, nothing could've prepared state and local authorities in Jacksonville for what they saw go down on April 28. Local agencies, including a local wrangler named Mike Dragich, were on a mission to get an alligator off the streets after the apex predator was spotted in the median of I-95/I-295 in Jacksonville's Southside area. Dragich, who goes by Blue Collar Brawler on social media, was recorded attempting to coax the alligator into submission. Dragich was seen using a pole to engage the gator, who snaps and whips its tail at him in a grassy median as cars speed by on either side. 🚨 Only in Florida… 🚨featuring Mike Dragich. If you were cruising down I-95/I-295 on the Southside yesterday and thought you saw a barefoot man wrestling a giant alligator in the median—nope, your eyes weren't playing tricks on you. That really happened. 🐊😳 Your #JSO joined forces with Florida Fish & Wildlife, the Florida Highway Patrol and none other than local gator-wrangling legend, the Blue Collar Brawler, to wrangle this beast off the road and keep everyone safe. Just another totally normal day in the Sunshine State. 🌞💪 He then wrangles it onto the shoulder of the highway, then sits on its back to muzzle the beast — all while shoeless, wearing camouflage shorts and a sleeveless camo shirt. Dragich and a fellow state alligator trapper lift the gator off the shoulder of the roadway and load it into the back of a pickup truck. "Never in my wildest dreams," an off-camera voice says, as the gator wrangler laughs. 'If you were cruising down I-95/I-295 on the Southside yesterday and thought you saw a barefoot man wrestling a giant alligator in the median — nope, your eyes weren't playing tricks on you. That happened,' the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office wrote in a Facebook post. Alligator mating season typically occurs in May or June, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Watch barefoot Florida man wrangle alligator on I-95: 'Never in my wildest dreams'
Just another day in Florida? A barefoot man was captured on video wrestling a giant alligator on Interstate 95 near Jacksonville. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office teamed up with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Highway Patrol, and a local alligator wrangler after the gator was spotted recently in the median of I-95/I-295 in Jacksonville's Southside area. 'If you were cruising down I-95/I-295 on the Southside yesterday and thought you saw a barefoot man wrestling a giant alligator in the median — nope, your eyes weren't playing tricks on you. That happened,' the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office wrote in a Facebook post. JSO, Blue Collar Brawler, FWC Wrangle Alligator 🚨 Only in Florida… 🚨featuring Mike you were cruising down I-95/I-295 on the Southside yesterday and thought you saw a barefoot man wrestling a giant alligator in the median—nope, your eyes weren't playing tricks on you. That really happened. 🐊😳Your #JSO joined forces with Florida Fish & Wildlife, the Florida Highway Patrol and none other than local gator-wrangling legend, the Blue Collar Brawler, to wrangle this beast off the road and keep everyone another totally normal day in the Sunshine State. 🌞💪 Posted by Jacksonville Sheriff's Office on Monday, April 28, 2025 In the video, the man can be seen using a pole to engage the gator, who snaps and whips its tail at him in a grassy median as cars speed by on either side. He wrangles it onto the shoulder of the highway, then sits on its back to muzzle the beast — all while shoeless, wearing camouflage shorts and a sleeveless camo shirt. Eventually, the man and a responder lift the gator off the shoulder of the roadway and load it into the back of a pickup truck. "Never in my wildest dreams," an off-camera voice says, as the gator wrangler laughs. The man who helped authorities wrangle the massive gator on I-95 is Mike Dragich, better known as the Blue Collar Brawler on social media, according to With more than 364,000 followers on Instagram, Dragich has built a following by posting videos of himself hunting and wrestling alligators across Florida. Goodbye, gator: 'It tore us all up': Residents band together to mourn Walter, the neighborhood alligator Dragich, who's also an mixed martial arts fighter and a Marine veteran, seems to enjoy barefoot brawling inside and outside the octagon: According to he wrestled another gator on Easter Sunday. In an April 20, post, Dragich's Instagram shows video of him coaxing an angry alligator into a large trash can, quickly closing the lid as the animal snaps its massive jaws, and then wheeling the creature away. "Taking the trash out in Florida," the caption reads. He explains that a resident letting her dog out noticed a long tail on the patio. He "improvised using a trash can" to remove the gator. "Thankfully, no animals or people were injured!" he wrote, cautioning, "Pay attention to your surroundings!" Alligators are common in Florida, as well as in southern Texas, Louisiana, and parts of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, according to Defenders of Wildlife. They can move quickly in water, and while they're generally slower on land, they're can still be quick — and dangerous to humans and other animals. Attacks on humans, though, are rare: "With how many people there are and how many alligators there are, it's really surprising it doesn't happen more often," Frank Mazzotti, professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Florida, told USA TODAY in 2022. Alligators breed and seek out new habitats in spring and summer, but they have a natural fear of humans and will usually retreat when approached, seeing humans as neither threat nor food, Mazzotti said. They only attack when threatened or cornered, especially on land. So experts advise avoiding waterways where alligators might be present. Maintaining a distance of at least 30 feet from an alligator is best, as they can run fast in short spurts. If an alligator chases you, experts from the University of Florida say to run in a straight line. In the event of an attack, poke at its eyes, and punch and kick around its face and head. The gator's gag reflex can be induced by jamming objects in the back of its mouth, so when it tries to reposition prey, that affords an opportunity to escape. "If you should be attacked, fight like your life depends on it because it does," Mazzoti said. Diamond Walker is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at dkwalker@ This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Later, Gator: Barefoot man wrangles reptile on Florida interstate
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Yahoo
How Florida Law Makes Gator Encounters More Dangerous
After a 10-foot-long alligator was spotted on the I-95 median in Jacksonville, Florida, law enforcement officers were forced to stand idly by because they lacked the proper permits to remove the gator. It wasn't until Mike Dragich, a Nuisance Alligator Trapper licensed by the state, showed up sporting bare feet and camo accouterments that the alligator was wrestled and captured. While Dragich's wrangling was impressive, the fact that cops had to wait for him to arrive raises the question: Why is alligator management so complicated in Florida? Like other government-sponsored conservation programs, Florida's Alligator Management Program is a bureaucratic boondoggle. The program has five divisions governing gator interactions on private and public land, including the trapping of nuisance alligators like the one wrangled by Dragich. A "Nuisance Alligator Trapper" license, which garners an annual cost of $50, is required before individuals can remove alligators at least 4 feet in length that threaten people, pets, or property—even on privately owned land. And the licenses are limited in availability. Anyone who wishes to assist an alligator trapper has to have a license (a $52 annual fee). Trappers must also carry a harvest permit (an additional $62 annually) specifying how a nuisance alligator can be killed after capture. Additional and separate state licenses are required for alligator hunting, collecting hatchlings and/or eggs, farming, and meat processing. Alligators kept in captivity for educational purposes, exhibition, or sale need yet another license, and keeping an alligator for personal use requires a different pet license. Importing and exporting alligator products is under federal purview. All of these licenses and permits are limited in availability—only 113 trappers were permitted to serve 10,000 nuisance calls across Florida in 2023—and come with their own list of requirements, regulations, and costs. Meanwhile, any killing, possessing, or capturing of an alligator without the appropriate license is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment and up to a $5,000 fine. This complicated web of state regulations stems from the ongoing federal oversight of the American Alligator. Although the reptile has been deemed fully recovered since 1987, today's 5 million gators across Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and parts of North and South Carolina are considered "threatened due to similarity of appearance" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) because they look similar to the American Crocodile—another threatened reptile—that only inhabits the southern parts of Florida. Under this categorization, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, limits the number of alligators killed by requiring a federally issued tag accompany each harvested reptile. By issuing a limited number of tags, the federal government constrains the alligator market and encourages states to heavily regulate alligator interactions to ensure compliance. While today's healthy number of alligators is often attributed to ESA limitations on commercial trade by federal agencies and certain conservationist groups, state regulations that embraced capitalist principles are what truly drove the population's comeback. Conservation efforts undertaken by the states in the 1960s to simultaneously regulate alligator hunting while incentivizing private land owners to view gators and wetlands as an asset, not a liability, significantly increased the overall population before the ESA took effect in 1973. Listing alligators as endangered under the ESA may have hampered conservation efforts because it prohibited states from setting reasonable hunting and harvesting quotas. It wasn't until the reptiles were reclassified to "threatened due to similarity of appearance" that states were given broader latitude to approach alligator management, including recreational and commercial harvesting. Ultimately, working with, not against, alligator hunters and traders and creating a legitimate market was key to the alligator's stunning comeback. Florida's stable and profitable 1.3 million alligator population stems largely from the state embracing, not limiting, commercial trade. However, Floridians still face onerous obstacles when interacting with the reptiles because of continued federal rules that penalize people and property owners from protecting themselves from gators. The police were able to call Dragich without getting hurt. Not everyone in Florida is that lucky. The post How Florida Law Makes Gator Encounters More Dangerous appeared first on
Time of India
01-05-2025
- General
- Time of India
WATCH: Man battles massive alligator with bare feet and a stick; here's the shocking result
In the middle of a week filled with viral challenges and social media stunts, a very real, very risky moment from Florida has taken center stage online. While timelines were buzzing with debates over hypothetical matchups like '100 men vs. a gorilla,' one man was out on a highway, face-to-face with an actual wild alligator– and he was barefoot. The jaw-dropping incident happened on a busy part of Interstate 95 near Jacksonville, where drivers were stunned to spot a large alligator moving dangerously between lanes. What followed wasn't a call to animal control– it was a direct intervention by a man who didn't wait for backup, and the entire moment was caught on video. According to a report presented by the Indian Express, the man in the viral video is Mike Dragich , a Marine veteran and MMA fighter known on social media for dealing with wild animals in Florida. In the clip, he's seen wearing camo clothes and no shoes as he carefully uses a long pole to move the alligator away from the road. The alligator swings its tail and snaps its jaws, but Dragich stays calm. With cars zooming past, he keeps his focus, finally climbing onto the alligator's back and quickly holding its jaws shut. It's a tense but impressive moment. According to the Indian Express report, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office later confirmed the incident with a post that quickly grabbed attention, stating: 'If you were cruising down I-95/I-295 on the Southside yesterday and thought you saw a barefoot man wrestling a giant alligator in the median– nope, your eyes weren't playing tricks on you. That happened.' Watch the video here: According to officials, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Highway Patrol, and a licensed alligator trapper also responded to the scene. Once Dragich had the animal under control, authorities helped move it safely off the road and into a transport vehicle, the media report suggests. According to the report, Dragich is no stranger to such situations. Known on social media as the 'Blue Collar Brawler,' he frequently shares videos of himself catching and relocating wild alligators across Florida, often without wearing shoes. His hands-on approach and calm demeanor have earned him a large following and respect among locals who have witnessed his rescues firsthand. As the alligator is loaded into the back of a pickup truck, someone in the video says, 'Never in my wildest dreams,' while the alligator wrangler laughs. It's a moment that shows both relief and surprise from those watching.
Time of India
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Explained: What is the Florida man meme?
(Instagram: If you are on social media, you must have come across a video where a man is capturing an alligator just by wearing a pair of crocs. The bravery of the man fighting the giant creature in broad daylight without the slightest hint of fear has amazed netizens. In a scene straight out of an action movie, Mike Dragich—Marine veteran, MMA fighter , and licensed alligator trapper—was captured on video wrestling a massive alligator barefoot on a busy Jacksonville highway. Known online as the " Blue Collar Brawler ," Dragich sprang into action when the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office reported a gator wandering between lanes on I-95 and I-295. Armed with just a pole and his bare hands, he skillfully maneuvered the thrashing reptile onto the shoulder, muzzled it, and, with assistance, loaded it into a pickup truck—all while traffic sped by. Dragich's daring feat, shared widely on social media, isn't his first viral encounter; he's previously been filmed capturing alligators in various Florida locales, including near an elementary school. Beyond his reptilian wrangling, Dragich runs Project Savior Outdoors , a nonprofit dedicated to combating veteran suicide through outdoor activities. A Marine veteran and mixed martial arts fighter, Dragich has gained a large following on social media by sharing videos of himself catching alligators across Florida, often barefoot, USA Today reported. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 3 Reasons to Plug This Into Your Home Today elecTrick - Save upto 80% on Power Bill Learn More Undo The video is being hugely shared on social media. "That's awesome where do you train?," writes one user. "Am I the only one who noticed the alligator must've been so afraid it pissed itself?," another said. "The fact that there are so many alligators just on the roadways is slightly alarming," wrote a third user. While Dragich makes it look effortless, wildlife experts caution against attempting such feats, emphasizing the importance of professional intervention when dealing with wild animals. Watch the video here: Florida man meme The term 'Florida Man' has become internet legend, thanks to a never-ending stream of bizarre, wild, and often hilarious news headlines featuring men from the Sunshine State doing the unthinkable. From wrestling alligators in traffic to robbing stores with a live iguana, Florida Man stories are equal parts shocking and entertaining. He's unpredictable, fearless (sometimes foolishly so), and always trending. While these headlines might seem unreal, they reflect Florida's unique mix of swamps, heat, and eccentric personalities. Whether he's a hero or a headline-maker, Florida Man has secured his place as the internet's favorite chaotic character.
