A police officer in Western Australia stepped in to remove a one-meter crocodile discovered outside a family’s home
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/crocodile-capture-31026-d335d244b8fc49c48f475fdf5ec7f248.jpg "Police Officer Uses Shovel to Capture Crocodile Found on Family’s Front Porch in Remote Australia")
Credit: Western Australia Police Force/Facebook
NEED TO KNOW
- A freshwater crocodile was discovered outside a home in Junjuwa near Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia
- Police officer Mark Howes stepped in to capture the reptile after no wildlife officers were available
- The roughly one-meter crocodile was safely relocated back to the river after the unusual backyard encounter
Residents in a remote Western Australian community were stunned when a freshwater crocodile showed up outside a family’s home, prompting a local police officer to step in and handle the unusual situation himself.
The encounter took place late last month in Junjuwa, near Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region, about 2,400 kilometers north of Perth. Fitzroy Crossing police officer-in-charge Mark Howes said he was alerted after colleagues were flagged down by concerned residents asking who in town could remove a crocodile.
“A staff member rang me and goes: ‘Hey boss, do you know who gets rid of crocodiles in Fitzroy Crossing?’ ” Howes recalled on Operation Podcast, which is carried out by the Western Australia Police Force. After calling around and learning no wildlife officers were available, he decided to head to the home and deal with the reptile himself.
When he arrived, the roughly one-meter crocodile was sitting on the front porch. Howes initially planned to guide the reptile through the front gate and toward the river, but the situation quickly changed when the crocodile bolted into the backyard instead.
“I picked up the shovel and, of course, best laid plans, it went out the back of the house where there's no gate,” he said.
Thinking quickly, the officer grabbed a piece of metal with a forked end and used it to pin the crocodile long enough to move behind it. “It gave me enough time to jump in behind it and grab it so it didn’t bite me,” Howes said.
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Holding the crocodile firmly by the neck, he carried it out of the yard as onlookers watched in disbelief. The reptile was then placed in the back of a police vehicle and transported back to the nearby river.
While the rescue ended safely, Howes said the crocodile didn’t go quietly. “It still had sharp teeth, and it was having a red-hot crack at me,” he said.