Two Florida men have been arrested after they allegedly captured an alligator and poured beer down the animal’s throat, the authorities said.
Timothy Kepke, 27, and Noah Osborne, 22, were both arrested Oct. 3, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report obtained by TCPalm. They each face one felony charge of unlawfully taking an alligator.
The FWC report says the conservation agency received a complaint this August about Kepke grabbing an alligator with his bare hands and encouraging the reptile to bite his right forearm before pouring beer into its mouth. After the beer feeding, the two released the animal back into the wild. It is currently unclear how large the alligator was.
Officers spoke with a female friend of the two men prior to the arrests. The woman confirmed the account with officers, saying that she thought Kepke got bitten because what he did to the alligator made it act aggressively.
The duo filmed the incident that took place on the night of Aug. 26 in Palm City, according to the report. The authorities have not released any video at this time, and it’s not clear if they circulated any video before their arrests.
Kepke and Osborne were booked into the Martin County Jail. Both men were released on the same day after paying a $5,000 and a $2,500 bail bond, respectively.
It’s a third-degree felony under Florida law to kill or injure an alligator. It’s also a felony to capture and keep an alligator or its eggs without a state-issued special alligator trapping or farming license.
Florida Man Arrested for Allegedly Cutting Brake Lines on 140 Electric Scooters
A Florida man was arrested last month after being caught on video slicing the brake lines of electric scooters.
59-year-old Randall Thomas Williams, of Fort Lauderdale, was caught Sept. 29 in the act of tampering with several scooters, the police department said Oct. 2 in a press release. He has been charged with criminal mischief, a third-degree felony.
“Further investigation revealed a total of 20 scooters were located nearby with severed brake lines,” police said, adding that as many as 140 electric scooters operated by different vendors throughout the city have had their brakes cut since April. A majority of the incidents occurred near East Broward Boulevard, which is near Williams’s residence.
The FLPD posted surveillance camera footage of a scooter vandalism incident on its official YouTube channel. The video taken at around 3:45 a.m. shows the male vandal, whom police identified as Williams, approaching a docked Lime-brand scooter and doing something on the scooter’s QR activation code before walking off camera. He then returns shortly with a tool in hand and appears to cut the two-wheeler’s brake lines.
Williams offered no motive for the brake line cutting spree, reportedly telling his attorney he “did not want to dig himself into a grave,” according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
