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LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Most people wouldn't dare wrestle with an alligator.
Then there's Jessica McGregor, a Lake County sheriff's deputy, who could probably take on alligator trapping as a side job.
McGregor is the school resource officer at Clermont Middle School. Tuesday afternoon, she started hearing complaints about a gator near school grounds.
"Yeah, I didn't want to risk the gator getting into the residential neighborhoods that were right there," McGregor said.
So she took matters into her own hands.
Deputy McGregor says first she lassoed the gator, and then she put tape around its mouth.
"But I also tapped over his eyes — because their eyes actually retract down into their heads, so they're not damaged — so that he wasn't upset, and it actually calmed him down and made it less stressful for the alligator while we were waiting," McGregor said.
Deputy McGregor says her expertise comes from her childhood growing up in Lake County.
"We had a bit of acreage and a lot of water. If we saw them out there, we'd just go play with them move them around. So it was something we did growing up."
