LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A Leesburg man was arrested last week after a mutilated alligator carcass was discovered in Montverde, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

In an arrest report, FWC officers said they received a call on the morning of July 13 about the alligator being killed.

After arriving at the scene, the officers learned from the caller that she’d been asked by her neighbor how to clean an alligator the day prior.

“(The caller) asked (the neighbor) where he got an alligator, and he told her a kid caught it and couldn’t get his fishing lure out of its mouth and proceeded to beat the alligator,” an arrest report reads.

Law enforcement then went to take a look at the dismembered alligator carcass, which was left on the brush line next to a home along Bay Avenue, the FWC stated.

There, investigators learned that a man — later identified as Hunter Crumbo, 28 — had been seen catching the alligator from a nearby canal before beating it with a golf club, the report shows.

Meanwhile, one neighbor admitted to putting the alligator “out of its misery,” though he also denied dismembering its corpse, officers reported.

Officers later met with Crumbo at the Tavares Department of Corrections for an interview, and he admitted to catching and beating the reptile, investigators noted.

As a result, he was arrested and now faces a charge of killing or injuring an alligator without authority.

Jail records reveal that Crumbo has been arrested in Lake County several times dating back to 2020. Previous charges included violating a domestic violence injunction, criminal mischief, and driving with a revoked license for DUI.

Another report by the FWC shows that Crumbo was also taken into custody earlier this year after he dug up artifacts from an archaeological dig site at Ferndale Preserve.

The FWC report for July’s arrest can be read below: