Video: Florida deputy wrestles alligator near middle school before students are released

(WPTV) - When a Florida deputy saw that a 7-foot alligator was trying to get through a chain link fence at an area middle school on Thursday, she took matters into her own hands.

The Orlando Sentinel  reports that Deputy Jessica McGregor, 29 and a mother of two, didn't want to wait nearly two hours for a trapper to show up, especially because the school was about to let out for the day.

So she grabbed some rope, tied a noose and lassoed the reptile. She dragged it out of the bushes and kept him from escaping into a nearby retention pond.

"I've lived in Lake County my whole life. Back in the day, you had these things come up on your land, and you just caught 'em up and threw 'em back in the nearest watering hole," McGregor told the Sentinel.

Once the gator tired out after spinning and flopping around, McGregor pinned his front legs with her knees, grabbed his snout and pulled his head up. She then taped his jaws and stood up.

McGregor told the Sentinel she learned how to trap gators from her brother, Evan Bailey, who works for the sheriff's department and hopes to become a deputy himself.