A 52-year-old police sergeant in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, used his bare hands to catch a 1.1-meter-long crocodile Wednesday morning in a tributary of the Sagami River.
Shuichi Ashikawa waded into the roughly 50-cm-deep river to capture the reptile after a passerby taking a walk reported spotting it.
Police said they suspect it had been kept as a pet and either escaped or was abandoned. They plan to transfer it to a facility capable of housing it.
"I'd hoped to lasso it, but it suddenly started toward me, so I instinctively sandwiched its neck with my ankles and pulled it up by its tail," Ashikawa said.
