JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — This is a story about two tough ladies who thwarted an escape.
Gen Anderson and Karsyn McCreedy work at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.
On Tuesday, the staff moved some crocs and gators from one exhibit to another one on the other side of the park.
They used an "enclosed van, because it’s safe," Anderson told First Coast News.
They drove on A1A just outside the park.
"It was a very short distance. It was 0.1 miles we were traveling," Anderson noted.
"I was driving," Anderson said, then pointed to McCreedy.
"She was the passenger. Yep. And there were a few critters in the back."
Four toothy critters, to be exact, including an 8 foot long and 150 pound crocodile.
"I was in the back watching the animals. By the time I was saying, 'Okay, he’s moving back. He’s kind of moving backwards.' By the time I said, 'He’s up by the window,' he had already popped that window," McCreedy recalled.
The crocodile popped the van's back window right out and hopped out of the van, and then that croc was on a walk.
He landed on the road while the van was still moving.
"I jumped out with or capture equipment we always carry with us when we do transport, just in case for emergency," McCreedy said.
Anderson said they stopped and slammed on the horn before making a call on the radio.
McCreedy nabbed the croc with a pole and a line, but he is bigger than she is, and "he took her for a walk," Anderson said.
Traffic comes to a stop and the croc is trying to make a run for it, right in front of an elementary school.
What could have been a pretty bad scene, wasn't.
That's because of quick actions. And that quick radio call that Anderson made beckoned a nearby co-worker who ran to help.
Anderson went to help her colleague by also grabbing ahold of the pole.
"We gave him a good yank back. Then he went up on the grass, and I said, 'I’m going to jump him.'"
Anderson jumped onto the crocodile's back.
Impressive as that is, she just shrugs about it during the interview. She's jumped on crocodile's backs before.
"Yeah, probably a dozen yesterday alone before this incident," Anderson and McCreedy laugh a little.
These woman said training kicked in, not panic.
"There was none of that yesterday. We just had to get the job done," Anderson said.
"Instinct clicked in really well with the training we do here," McCreedy added.
The croc is back in the park. No one was hurt.
And while the Alligator Farm lures visitors in with a giant military truck on it's parking lot and an even bigger fake reptile in the bed of the truck, it’s good to know some girl power can handle the real thing.