Date: May 1, 2011
by: Brian McMillan | Managing Editor

This is not the alligator that was found in the cooler. STOCK PHOTO

The warm alligator tail was a dead giveaway.

On April 15, Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies arrested two men who didn’t buy a big enough cooler for their illegal hunting activities.

According to a Sheriff’s Office report, deputies responded to a complaint of illegal hunting at Durrance and Shedd lanes, in Ormond Beach. When at 8:18 p.m. they reached a white pickup truck that met the description, deputies shined a flashlight into the truck and saw a loaded rifle beside the driver’s leg, muzzle down.

The driver, Brian Michael Taylor, is 22 years old and lives in Bunnell.

There were two passengers. In the front passenger seat was Bryan J. Bennett, 22, of Holly Hill. He also had a loaded rifle, and when he got out of the truck, he threw an open beer can into the ditch. The third passenger was not named in the report.

All three people had open beer containers. They said they had been hog hunting. But when the deputy checked Taylor’s cooler, he saw an alligator tail under the ice. He also found a deer shoulder. All the meat was fresh and unfrozen, the deputy stated in the report.

Taylor was charged with unlawful possession of an alligator and unlawful possession of or taking a deer in closed season. Bennett was charged with illegal possession of an alligator.

The report did not mention whether they were charged with impersonation of hog hunters.