“Only in Florida . . .” jokes the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in a social-media post sharing a video of a barefoot man wrestling a giant alligator on the side of a highway. “Just another totally normal day in the Sunshine State.”
Mike Dragich, the Blue Collar Brawler, is the barefoot man who stepped in to help the Sheriff’s Office earlier this week when they needed to get a large gator away from the road.
In the video, Dragich manages to subdue the large reptile and lift it into the bed of a truck for relocation.
“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,” the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office explains in its post. “That really happened.”
The online community is loving this footage, and the fact that this guy is apparently on the Sheriff’s Office’s speed dial.
From the look of Dragich’s social-media profile, he has a lot of experience wrangling gators.
“Only state where the PD calls a random dude with no shoes,” jokes one commenter.
This article by Bethanie H was first published by Outdoors on 1 May 2025.
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