Alligator farm vandal caught in trail of blood

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A 23-year-old man was injured after breaking into an alligator farm 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 Times-Union. 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.