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Florida man rescues puppy from an alligator's jaws while smoking a cigar

He didn't even take the cigar out of his mouth.

Mark Serrels Editorial Director
Mark Serrels is an award-winning Senior Editorial Director focused on all things culture. He covers TV, movies, anime, video games and whatever weird things are happening on the internet. He especially likes to write about the hardships of being a parent in the age of memes, Minecraft and Fortnite. Definitely don't follow him on Twitter.
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Retiree Richard Wilbanks is no ordinary Florida Man. He's gone viral on the internet for all the right reasons. Namely: Rescuing a tiny dog from the jaws of an alligator, casually smoking a cigar all the while. 

Wilbanks was taking his dog Gunner for a walk in Fort Myers, Florida when the unthinkable happened. An alligator snatched Gunner into a pond, into its jaws and chomped down.

What happened next is utterly insane: Wilbanks marched into the pond, grabbed the alligator and literally pried its jaws open, rescuing Gunner.

Wildlife cameras captured the footage.

"He just came out like a missile," Wilbanks told KHOU 11.

Since the incident, Wilbanks has gone just a little bit viral. Mainly because not only did he rescue his dog from certain death, he did so without dropping his cigar. True legendary behaviour.

Wilbanks told the ABC his hands were "chewed up". He plans to keep Gunner on a leash next time.