Florida man saves neighbor from jaws of 11-foot gator by hitting it with his car

Nathaniel Rodriguez
·1 min read
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Florida man saves neighbor from jaws of 11-foot gator by hitting it with his car

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A man in Collier County narrowly escaped a potentially deadly encounter with an 11-foot alligator Friday.

NBC affiliate WBBH reported that Friday night, Rick Fingeret was walking his two Labradors near a pond in The Quarry off Immokalee Road when he was attacked by the massive gator.

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Fingeret tried to fight off the reptile by kicking it and poking it in the eyes and nose. Fortunately for Fingeret, his neighbor Walter Rudder happened to be driving by and saw the man trapped on the ground with his legs inside the alligator’s mouth.

“I was driving, and we saw a man lying on the ground, waving his arm,” Rudder told WBBH. “We pulled over and I got out of the car and saw that an alligator had him by the leg.”

With not much time to think, Rudder ran over the alligator, which released Fingeret from its mouth.

According to WBBH, Fingeret survived the attack but said he did not know what would have happened if his neighbor did not help him.

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