{"id":37059,"date":"2021-10-29T11:32:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T11:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/florida-man-catches-alligator-in-trash-can\/"},"modified":"2021-10-29T11:32:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T11:32:00","slug":"florida-man-catches-alligator-in-trash-can","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/florida-man-catches-alligator-in-trash-can\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Man Catches Alligator in Trash Can"},"content":{"rendered":"

If anyone in Hollywood is looking to reboot Crocodile Dundee<\/em> with a person of color in the lead role, 26-year-old Eugene Bozzi won’t have to send in an audition tape, because he’s already got an alligator-hunting viral video under his belt.<\/p>\n\n

When Bozzi was notified by his children that an alligator had wondered onto their suburban property, he went outside to investigate. He told USA TODAY <\/em>that he assumed it was a baby alligator and was prepared to let it go, but when he saw its real size, he knew he needed to act.<\/p>\n\n

Bozzi, a US Army veteran, said “I'm removing it because he's probably hungry. The only thing that came to my mind was to protect my kids and the other children outside." His heroic exploits were filmed and posted to Twitter, where it’s been viewed at least six million times.<\/p>\n\n

When the video footage of him begins, Bozzi has a dark-colored trash receptacle tipped over on its side, lid up, mouth open, and he’s pushing it toward the gator. “Let me know when the head goes inside,” he implores the onlookers who are filming him. Then, once the gator is close enough, Bozzi swings the lid over, striking the gator on its head. As the gator violently thrashes around, he slowly tilts the can upward, trapping it inside as onlookers whoop and holler in joyful disbelief.<\/p>\n\n

Bozzi said, "I used the front like a hippo mouth. I saw that he was timid, and he was backing down, so that's why I knew I had the advantage.” Afterwards, Bozzi released the gator into a nearby waterway. He said, "I feel like I was just doing what I was supposed to do at the time.”<\/p>\n\n

You can view the video here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Possible Preaching Angle:<\/h2>\n\n

We sometimes need to put ourselves in harm’s way to protect the weak and innocent. This is what Jesus did when he took on Satan to protect us from spiritual death. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3512,3597,3716,3731,3775,3879,4535,4546,4580,4733,4734,4808,4883,5064,5086],"tax_ctp_topics":[395,397],"class_list":["post-37059","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-boldness","tax_ctp_tags-christian-warfare","tax_ctp_tags-crisis","tax_ctp_tags-danger","tax_ctp_tags-devil","tax_ctp_tags-escape","tax_ctp_tags-neighbor","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-overcoming","tax_ctp_tags-protection","tax_ctp_tags-protection-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-rescue","tax_ctp_tags-satan","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-warfare","tax_ctp_tags-stress"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nFlorida Man Catches Alligator in Trash Can - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/florida-man-catches-alligator-in-trash-can\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Florida Man Catches Alligator in Trash Can - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If anyone in Hollywood is looking to reboot Crocodile Dundee with a person of color in the lead role, 26-year-old Eugene Bozzi won’t have to send in an audition tape, because he’s already got an alligator-hunting viral video under his belt. 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