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'Blue Collar Brawler' helps catch gator on highway
Video shows the barefoot Florida man known as the Blue Collar Brawler helping wrangle a large gator in the median along I-95/I-295 in Jacksonville. (Courtesy: Blue Collar Brawler.)
TAMPA, Fla. - The Blue Collar Brawler can add another gator to his list of captures, as the famed barefoot gator trapper helped deputies in north Florida catch a "beast" roaming along I-95 while drivers whizzed by.
The backstory:
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office says the gator was spotted along the median of I-95/I-295 in the Southside area of Jacksonville on Sunday.
"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," JSO said in a post on social media.
Video shows the Blue Collar Brawler – a licensed gator trapper whose real name is Mike Dragich – helping the sheriff's office, Florida Fish & Wildlife and the Florida Highway Patrol wrangle the large alligator.
What they're saying:
"It definitely gets my blood, my heart pumping and my blood flowing, the adrenaline going. I've done it quite a bit, so I feel confident in what I'm doing with these animals. I know how they move. That's not the same for everyone, so you've got to be careful, never approach these animals," Dragich said.
Dig deeper:
Dragich has 362,000 followers on Instagram and has made headlines before for his barefoot gator-trapping efforts.
Last summer, he helped firefighters catch a gator that had wandered into a Jacksonville fire station.
The Source: This story was written with information and video from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the Blue Collar Brawler.
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