Florida Gator Wrangled After Chasing People in Wendy's Parking Lot

On Monday, the Lee County Sheriff's Department posted a series of images to their Twitter account showing a few of its deputies wrangling a 6-to-7-foot-long gator in a parking lot in Lehigh Acres, Florida. The gator was originally spotted at a local Wendy's.

The office said in the tweet, "He may have just been 'hangry' for a cheeseburger, but he gave many quite the scare!"

According to the tweet, deputies responded to the scene on Lee Blvd. after receiving a call that the gator had chased pedestrians through the Wendy's parking lot. A spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office told Newsweek that the gator eventually crossed over Lee Blvd. to the Lehigh Acres Health and Rehab parking lot, where deputies and members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) worked together to wrangle the gator. No injuries were reported.

The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue Department also tweeted a video that shows the gator making its way through the rehab parking lot.

"In other #Florida news, we'll be experiencing a slightly delayed response time leaving Lehigh Acres Health & Rehab," the department said jokingly.

Gator sightings are common in Florida. Earlier this month, another gator was caught crossing Lee Blvd. in Lehigh Acres. And just last week, a Florida TikToker spotted a gator blocking his home's front door. Of course, busy roadways and front porches aren't natural habitats for gators.

"Alligators prefer lakes and slow-moving rivers and their wetlands, but can also be found in brackish water and, for short periods of time, in saltwater," a spokesperson for the FWC told Newsweek.

The FWC believes that the gator spotted in the Wendy's parking lot was trying to move from one body of water to another. The gator has since been captured and transported to an alligator farm.

FWC's Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program (SNAP) encourages those who encounter a nuisance alligator to call its toll-free Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR. According to the FWC's website, a gator is considered a nuisance if it is at least 4-feet long and thought to be a threat to people, pets or property; however, those who encounter a smaller alligator in a pool, garage, etc. can call the hotline as well to have the creature removed.

05/19/2021: The story has been updated to include comments from the FWC.