MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — You may have heard this one before: What do you call an alligator that's a detective?
An investi-gator!
It might be a silly joke, but it's relevant to a recent incident out of Martin County, Florida.
According to the Martin County Fire Rescue, on Wednesday, the agency's special ops dive team was going into a pond off SW Citrus Boulevard to help retrieve a submerged vehicle. It would later be determined that the vehicle was unoccupied.
However, their efforts were said to be short-lived thanks to the emergence of a 9-foot, 6-inch alligator who swam over. Perhaps the curious gator just wanted to help?
The department wasn't taking any chances.
"One of our fire rescue retirees — who runs a gator trapping business — showed up to help, capturing the large animal and taping it up with help from a Martin County Sheriff's Deputy," the Martin County Fire Rescue shared in a Facebook post.
The alligator was eventually relocated and the original operation continued.
The dive team was then able to go back into the water and assess the vehicle. The Martin County Sheriff's Office says that the vehicle had been reported stolen out of St. Lucie County.
According to the fire department, they were prepared for the event a gator could be near. As most Floridians know, if there's a body of water nearby, a gator could be, too. The Martin County Sheriff's Office had been keeping watch over the dive teams in the event a gator was spotted.
And one was.
