See you later alligator

Leslie Strickland said she had nothing but good intentions when she loaded a badly hurt six foot alligator into the back seat of her car and took it home.

The 49-year-old hit the reptile with her car on Friday night and went back to rescue it on Saturday – but wound up spending a night in jail, charged with possession of an alligator, a crime in Florida.

Police also charged her with driving with a suspended licence and walking away from the scene of an accident, leaving the injured alligator in the back seat.

“I knew I was in trouble, and I panicked and I left,” Strickland said in Tampa. “I had a felony in the back seat, and I just didn’t know what to do.”

On Saturday, Strickland said she drove the gator home, wetted it down with hose and then tried unsuccessfully to reach somebody with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

After neighbours told her it was illegal to have the animal, she loaded it in the car again and drove off in search of a pond to release it.

But the alligator started to thrash its tail, she said. Distracted, she veered off the road and hit a mailbox. Witnesses told police she tried to drive off, but her car got stuck in the ditch. So she got out and walked away.

Police arrested Strickland at her home nearby, adding a charge of resisting arrest after she struggled with officers who tried to handcuff her. She said she “freaked out” at the prospect of going to jail.

The game commission finally removed the alligator from the car. It died later.