Osceola deputy tapes a gator's snout and gives it a ride in his patrol car
On Halloween afternoon an Osceola County deputy found an alligator stuck in a fence outside a Kissimmee tourist car park, taped its snout shut, loaded it into his patrol car and released it at Lake Cecile.
Forget Uber. In Osceola County, Florida, the VIP ride of the week was an alligator in the back of a patrol car.
On Halloween afternoon (31 October 2026), Osceola County deputies were called to a tourist-heavy plaza near Celebration Hardware Company in Kissimmee after reports of a gator roaming the car park. When they arrived, the animal was caught between a fence while people stood nearby watching the full Florida experience unfold.
Deputy Nicholas Pippin – who the sheriff’s office said has prior alligator-handling experience – pulled the gator free, taped its snout shut and secured it in his patrol car. Body-camera footage released by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office captured the wrangle. Pippin then drove the passenger to Lake Cecile, untaped it and released it.
FOX 35 Orlando, WESH and other local outlets picked up the sheriff’s office release and Facebook post in early November 2026.
Stock photo: an American alligator at Lake Apopka, Florida (28 Jan 2024) – not the Kissimmee gator. Photo: lwolfartist / CC BY 2.0 (via Wikimedia Commons).
Stock photo: an Osceola County Sheriff Dodge Charger (2019) – not the patrol car from the Halloween call. Photo: Steven Straiton / CC BY 2.0 (via Wikimedia Commons).
AI illustration – imagined booking. (Spot Gaz, our gorilla, hiding somewhere in this picture.)
AI illustration – imagined lake drop-off; not the actual release.
Five stars for the chauffeur. Zero stars for the fence.
Reported by FOX 35 Orlando (Emily Ching, 4 Nov 2026) and WESH (2 Nov 2026), citing the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.
