Crikey, mate! 'Croc Files' helps cops snare alligator

WILKINSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Taking a cue from a Discovery Channel show, officers captured a 4-foot-long alligator in a residential yard by using a dog snare and a shirt.
Officer Richard Grande threw a shirt over the gator's head after another officer used a dog snare -- a long pole used to keep animals at a safe distance -- to restrain it. Sgt. John Snyder and Officer Doug Yuhouse taped the alligator's mouth shut and took the reptile to animal control.
"They watched that on Discovery's 'Croc Files,'" Wilkinsburg police Lt. Todd Ruggiero said.
Animal control officer Paul McIntyre says the reptile captured Tuesday in the Pittsburgh suburb is an American alligator about 6 or 7 years old.
"People buy them as pets and let them go once they get too big. They shouldn't even be buying pets like this," McIntyre said.
Police were trying to find out who owned the animal, and Ruggiero said the owner could be cited under exotic reptile ordinances.