Army Vet Who Captured ‘Big A** Angry Alligator’ in Trash Can Tells Chris Cuomo: ‘The Steve Irwin Came Out In Me’

CNN’s Chris Cuomo clearly enjoyed one of his interviews on his show Thursday night, chatting with Eugene Bozzi, the man in the viral video from Florida who captured an alligator in a trash can.

Cuomo introduced the segment with the “amazing” video of the “epic showdown between a man and an alligator,” noting that Bozzi had never done anything like this before, knew nothing about alligators, and wasn’t even from Florida — he was originally from North Philadelphia.

The “even more beautiful part,” Cuomo said, was that Bozzi dragged the trash can across the street and down a hill to a pond to release the alligator safely.

“He goes across the street, down a pond with a big ass angry alligator in there, okay?” he continued, clearly amused by the video. “In slides, walking backwards. Goes to the pond, taking his sweet time, and then he lets it go. And takes back his garbage can, because they’re expensive.”

Cuomo told his audience that he “finally figured out why it makes sense,” because Bozzi had an Italian last name. “B-O-Z-Z-I, Italian blood. That alligator never had a chance.”

The CNN host asked his guest what he thought about all the fuss over his video, and Bozzi, calling in from Orlando via Skype, replied that the alligator was “really deprived and tired after going through that ordeal” and he just wanted to “make sure all was safe,” and get it away from his children.

“Obviously you love your kids, because who takes on an alligator?” asked Cuomo. “What made you think this is the way to capture the alligator?”

Bozzi said that his daughters like riding their bicycles on the streets around their house and had encountered a small alligator recently, which he had grabbed by the tail and moved away from them.

Then, one of his daughters came to get him to show him the larger alligator seen in the video, and he grabbed the trash can.

“I used my war techniques and the Steve Irwin came out in me a little bit, you know,” said Bozzi, “and I treated him like a ‘Hungry Hippo’ mouth.”

Cuomo asked him about his military training, asking how that had helped him.

Bozzi said he hadn’t trained to “actually attack or apprehend alligators, but to be under pressure and not panic and approach the situation and finish the task and eliminate the threat so you can make the environment around you safe.”

He mentioned that he had seven daughters and Cuomo interrupted him to confirm that number.

“Seven daughters!” said Cuomo.

“Yeah.”

“An alligator is the least of your problem with seven daughters,” Cuomo quipped, and then encouraged Bozzi to call the cops or a wildlife agency next time.

Watch the video above, via CNN.