A Florida man was arrested after he tried to throw an alligator he had stolen from a miniature golf course onto the roof of a beachside cocktail lounge because, he said, he wanted to “teach it a lesson,” the Associated Press reports.
Daytona Beach Shores police officers driving down Highway A1A spotted the man early Thursday morning hitting the alligator on the awning of the lounge patio and stomping on the alligator’s head before attempting, and failing, to throw the gator by its tail onto the lounge’s roof.
The unnamed 32-year-old man from Homestead said he had stolen the alligator from an enclosure at a nearby miniature golf course and that he was “teaching it a lesson.” (There was no information about why a putt-putt course kept at least one alligator caged, nor what lesson the man thought the alligator would learn on the roof of a bar.) He was charged with possession and injury of an alligator, unarmed burglary of an occupied dwelling, theft and criminal mischief.