By Olivia Lloyd
The Charlotte Observer
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A barefoot man was captured on video wrangling an alligator that wandered into a Florida fire station.
Mike Dragich is no stranger to wrestling gators — or people. He’s a state-licensed alligator trapper and MMA fighter, as well as a marine veteran, according to his social media and previous reporting from McClatchy News.
Dragich shared the video on July 15 on his Instagram account, @bluecollar_brawler.
In his post, Dragich said the gator left its pond to snap at city workers, preventing them from checking a meter. The creature then made its way inside the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department’s Station 31, where he said “It made some fun for the crew and me.”
The video shows him chasing the gator through the station’s bay, losing his shoes at some point during the process. The animal snaps at him as he uses a catch pole to snare it. Once he’s subdued the gator, a firefighter tapes its mouth.
Dragich turned heads in a previous gator encounter in April. He was called away from a hockey game to trap a gator in the middle of a busy road without any tools, McClatchy News reported. He was barefoot then, too.
An Instagram user called him the “barefoot brawler,” as Dragich is often seen shoeless while wrangling wildlife.
He uses the publicity from his gator wrangling to promote his nonprofit, Project Savior Outdoors, which aims to prevent veteran suicide and help veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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