A 10-foot crocodile is not the kind of neighbor someone hopes to welcome into their home.
Jacob and Angel Breytenbach, from Moedwil, South Africa, were not thrilled to meet such a reptilian visitor, who was caught using their backyard pool as his own crash pad.
Angel had been outside around 4:30 a.m. on Friday when she was ‘floating something big’ in her pool. It didn’t take long for the Indigenous Australian to realize it was a crocodile, she told Storyful, calling animal protection experts to her home.
“I have to applaud everyone for their great handling of the situation,” she said of the team that helped bring the creature to safety.
Exciting footage captured while capturing the crocodile shows the team using a lasso to wrestle the beast out of the pool as it splashes in the water.
“Jump on his teeth!” the brave Aussie can be heard screaming in the background. Right on his back, there you go. I’m Australian, I’ve seen it done before. “
The team of burly men were able to pull the huge animal up the grass and determine that it was an adult male crocodile. To calm him down, they put a white cloth over his head until extra help arrived.
“Only in South Africa,” Angel says in the video.
The Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation of Johannesburg organized the safe transfer of the crocodile to the wild after it was likely displaced by recent weather events, they said.
“Several animals have been displaced and appeared in strange places as a result of the heavy rains from cyclone Eloise. This crocodile is believed to have come from a nearby river, ”the group recently wrote in a Facebook update.
“The crocodile has been safely removed and placed in a safe location,” she added. “It will be monitored by the Department of Conservation and then released back into its natural habitat.”