HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. -- When alligators get too close for comfort, grab whatever is handy and guide them back to their pond. That was the plan for Deputy Wheaton and her fellow Hillsborough County deputies over the weekend.
Deputy Wheaton responded to a call to find a 4-foot-long gator getting some sleep in the shade of a car in the Tampa area.
Body-worn camera video from the deputies shows what happened.
She grabbed a broom to help lead the animal back to a nearby pond behind the home. After a while, the gator decided to go along for a joy ride by grabbing on to the broom.
No one was hurt and the gator was placed safely back in the pond.
It's gator mating season and the large reptiles are more visible right now, coming up on dry land to places they normally don't go.
This is the second alligator rescue for Deputy Wheaton in the last two months. In early April,the same deputy responded to a call about a 10-foot gator sleeping under a car at an apartment complex.
That rescue necessitated a professional to come and capture the animal to return him to the water.