10/06/2026
šØšØšØ Warning. Distressing content. Photos in the comments.
This is the final long form video of the body cam footage that is being released from the alligator poaching incident here in my neck of the woods. It took a dedicated team to sort through five hours of footage and condense it into this short 23 minute video of relevant information, and I am so grateful to the people that undertook such a monumental task š
Have you all watched this footage? Have you watched Kevin Lacz drop that he was a former Navy SEAL right out of the gate? Did you hear him name drop Clint Eastwood and Chris Kyle's name, along with local entreprenur Allan Bell and our Sheriff Robert Johnson? Did you hear his wife mention his medical practice and āhelping vetsā over and over? Did you see Mr. Lacz look straight into the face of an officer and lie? Did you see him pretend to be dumb and claim he doesnāt know the law with regards to hunting deer, even though he runs a hunting charity?
Should Navy SEALS be held to a lower standard than the rest of us? That's not rhetorical, I really want to know.
What about people that have met Clint Eastwood a handful of times? Does that give one enough street cred to throw caution to the wind, and do whatever TF they want with no ramifications?
I really wanna know, because my grandfather fought on the front lines in Europe in WWII, and I met Terry Bradshaw once. Do you think that would be enough to get me out of any future speeding tickets? Actually, thatās not a good analogy because a speeding ticket is just a civil infraction, not a 3rd degree felony.
This video is very revealing. It tells us:
š Lacz and friends illegally caught an alligator
š Lacz and friends illegally transported the alligator alive to Lacz's waterfront home in Gulf Breeze
š Lacz (and friends?) illegally killed the alligator
š Lacz (and friends?) killed the alligator using a power drill without rendering it unconscious first, which qualifies as torture to any sane person
š Lacz and friends failed to affix proper CITES tags to the alligatorās body post mortem
š Lacz had two deer heads on his property with fresh ābrain matterā visible according to one of the officers. Lacz told the officers one deer was killed this year and one last year. The video implies that the deer were taken out of season. Iām no detective, but I donāt think brain matter would last for weeks or months out in the hot Florida sun and rain. Do you?
š Lacz failed to log the deer kills
š Lacz is unapologetic. At no time does he have what I would consider to be a normal human response to the situation; Apologize up and down for his multiple āmisunderstandingsā. Offer to read up on hunting laws of his own volition to avoid getting himself in this situation again. Thank the officers for their grace in giving him a misdemeanor instead of the felony charges that the law requires.
Instead, he seems annoyed. Angry. Minimal eye contact when he isn't the one doing the talking. Minimal respect to the officers by lying to their face and playing dumb.
And hoping he can name drop his way out of this.
And maybe he can. I guess weāll know by this time tomorrow. But until then, I have a question: If Lacz is a registered SNAP (state nuisance alligator program) trapper, pray tell, why didnāt he have the proper equipment (a bangstick) to humanely euthanize the alligator on the spot, which is the law? Why did he transport it alive to his house instead? Was it so he could drill it to death in the privacy of his own home? I'm just asking. I really want to know. I think these are important questions that deserve honest answers.
If he lacked the proper permits, authorization, and equipment to catch and kill this alligator, why did he feel so comfortable doing so?
Is it because heās done this before? Even one of the responding officers wonders this aloud. Is this the first time heās done this, or just the first time heās been caught?
I love Florida. With my husbandās job, I could literally move anywhere in the country. And I choose Garcon Point, Florida. I love it here for the same reasons that I imagine Lacz hates it. I love it for our diverse wildlife and ecosystem. I love it for the people, the wonderful southern culture, and all that goes with it. And I love it for the wild abundance of nature untamed. I love to get lost in it, take it all in, and be a witness to the beauty of all of Godās creation. Like it or not, that includes snakes and alligators. The same thing that made me, made them, and I adore them for being a small piece of the bigger thing.
I am not against hunting. I actually respect the hell out of a man that hunts his own food to feed his family. But this isnāt that. Donāt conflate the two. This is about reckless disregard for the laws we have in place to protect what little of that wild Florida we have left. And this is about the difference between humane euthanasia and torture.
To me, only an absolute psycho would kill something with a power drill without rendering it unconscious first. If itās so humane, stop taking your old dogs to the vet when itās their time to cross the rainbow bridge. Just hog tie them and grab your power drill from the garage instead. Save your $200.
Donāt worry, itās quick.
Your dog wonāt be scared or uncomfortable at all.
Dogs are just animals, they can't feel pain.
God, how I wish I could subpoena cell phone records, because I often wonder if they filmed killing this alligator. I wonder if they just pulled her out of the truck and let her fall 4 feet to the ground. I wonder if they kicked her. I wonder how many holes were in her head. I wonder if they took turns pushing the drill down, or if just one man did it. I wonder these things because I am allowed to. They broke SO MANY LAWS that day. The actions they took were not only illegal; they were cruel. So all of my questions are within the realm of possibility I think.
I donāt know what will happen tomorrow with this case in the courtās hands. But I have hope that justice will be served. Iām not sure what that looks like, but I know what it doesnāt look like: it doesnāt look like men being found not guilty for a small misdemeanor charge, given the list of serious felonies listed above. And it doesnāt look like Lacz being able to continue to legally (or illegally) hunt in the state of Florida ever again. Maybe he was able to do whatever TF he wanted in Connecticut or Iraq, but not here.
Respect our rules, our officers, and our wildlife, or go home.
I want to extend a very special thank you to the female MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife officer in this video, along with the woman she spoke with on the phone from SNAP, for trying their best to conduct a professional and thorough investigation. If it wasn't for the other officer that attended the call (the man with the sunglasses and the beard) who was very enamored with Lacz and seemed to thwart any and every attempt to charge these men accordingly, I think justice would have been served already. If I was in an administrative position at FWC, after watching this video, that man would be fired on the spot.
Court is tomorrow morning, 8:30 am, at the Santa Rosa County Courthouse. If you want Lacz's autograph, be sure to bring a pen and paper. He met Clint Eastwood, you know š„“
