Watch police officer wrestle with huge alligator on the front porch of a Florida home

The body camera of a police officer from Florida has been caught on camera having an incredible encounter with an alligator on the front porch of a house. The footage put up on Facebook has garnered thousands of views.

The video was uploaded by the Boynton Beach Police Department on the social media site, which showed Officer Alfredo Vargas wrestling the alligator after he got a call from a terrified resident saying the huge reptile was lying near the front door of his house.

Vargas first called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), but soon decided to take matters into his own hands after the department told him that a trapper would take at least 30 minutes to arrive and would probably kill the reptile.

The video shows Vargas approach the alligator with a 5ft pole that had a noose at one end. Once he gets the reptile's head under control, he tapes its snout shut.

The police department said in its Facebook post that Vargas is trained in handling bothersome alligators and returning them to their natural habitat. He got his training from Gator Boys Alligator Rescue at the Everglades Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale, police said.

"He put the alligator in the back seat of his patrol car and took him out to a canal. He removed the tape from around its mouth and put him back in the water. Officer Vargas doesn't know it yet, but we've just made him the department's official alligator wrestler," the department joked on Facebook.