Man breaks into crocodile enclosure

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A 23-year-old man was injured after breaking into an alligator farm in Florida and jumping into a pond full of crocodiles, police said.

Police officers responding to reports of vandalism early Tuesday at the Alligator Farm Zoological Park found the underwear-clad man with an injured leg crawling across a nearby yard.

Officers found two rubber Croc shoes and a pair of shorts inside the newly-opened Nile crocodile enclosure, St. Augustine police spokeswoman Cecilia Aiple told The Florida TimesUnion. They also saw a bloody trail leading to the top of a nearby structure. Outside, in a neighboring yard, officers found Brandon Keith Hatfield. He was arrested, charged with vandalism and taken to a hospital where he tried to escape before getting caught in a retention pond lined with barbed wire, police said.

Hatfield told investigators he had been bitten by an alligator. They pieced together the details based on the evidence and the call reporting the suspicious man crawling in the yard.

“He … took a jump into a pond infested with big crocodiles,” Aiple said.