Barefoot man takes on rowdy alligator with just a trash can, Florida video shows

Florida’s “Bluecollar Brawler” is a professional trapper known for his highly theatrical clashes with alligators, and he took things up a notch the night before Easter by using a trash can as his only weapon.

As is often the case, Mike Dragich was also barefoot at the time.

“Late last night, a woman was letting her dog out and noticed a long tail slide by her patio,” Dragich wrote in an April 20 Instagram post.

“I responded from an Easter dinner with family and improvised using a trash can to remove the alligator from the property. Thankfully, no animals or people were injured!”

Video shows Dragich pinned the alligator between the trash can and a fence, then scooped it up. The bin also made for convenient removal, with Dragich rolling it down the driveway with the gator inside.

It happened in Jacksonville, and the alligator was estimated at 7 to 8 feet, WOFL reported. It got into the woman’s backyard by climbing the fence, according to the station.

Dragich is a licensed trapper and made headlines in April 2024 for wrestling an 8-foot alligator in traffic, and he was again barefoot.

Video shows Dragich fell atop the gator to bring it under control, then carried it out of traffic like a misbehaving toddler.

Dragich is a middleweight mixed martial arts fighter who was last in the ring in 2023, according to Tapology. His amateur MMA record is 2-2-0. He also leads a nonprofit called Project Savior Outdoors, which uses outdoor adventures to help veterans deal with post traumatic stress disorder.

This story was originally published April 21, 2025 at 11:08 AM with the headline "Barefoot man takes on rowdy alligator with just a trash can, Florida video shows."