Florida Man Arrested After Baptizing Alligator in Waffle House

Claim:

A man was taken into custody in Florida following his attempt to "baptize" a alligator at a Waffle House.

Rating:

Originated as Satire (About this rating?)

Stories spread online in mid-February 2026 about a man from Florida being taken into custody after attempting to "baptize" an alligator at a Waffle House.

Users on social media platforms such asFacebook (archived), Threads (archived) and Instagram (archived) were keen to promote the wild assertion, circulating a supposed mugshot of the individual in question and a claimed post from Florida news station WFOR stating he tried to use a "pitcher of iced tea" for the ceremony.

(The Dude Humor Report on Instagram)

No proof was presented that the claim was accurate or that the mugshot featured in the social media posts was genuine. Rather, the rumor began as a humorous post from an account that described itself as "comedy."

A search of Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoodid not find any results from reliable news sources covering this story.

A Google reverse image searchA search of the supposed social media post from WFOR's account only found other social media accounts sharing the same claimed screenshot, all originating from mid-February.

(Google)

WFORis a television channel based in Miami, Florida, officially known asCBS Miami. 

The station's social media profiles are identified as "CBS Miami" and not "WFOR4NEWS" at this time. Asearch of CBS Miami's social accountsA post matching the screenshot provided in the claim yielded no relevant results.

A search of newspaper archive Newspapers.comand the CBS Miami website also yielded no results for such a story.

The picture seemed to come from a Facebook profile that posted numerous supposed stories along with fabricated images akin to the one presented in the claim. The accountposted (archived) the assertion regarding a Florida man baptizing a gator on February 12, 2026.

However, the same account made comparable assertions around the same period as the post being discussed, all supposedly originating from the same WFOR4NEWS account. Additional alleged headlines involved a Florida woman who was arrested for igniting a brush fire by "using a flamethrower to remove a spider web from her porch" and a man trying to exchange an alligator for beer at a store.

Similar to the "baptizing" assertion, these posts featured supposed mugshots, but there was no proof that the reports or images were genuine. The mugshots seemed to have been generated using artificial intelligence, although it has not been able to confirm this independently.

All the previously mentioned posts from the Facebook account in question included the hashtags "comedy," "satire," and "for entertainment only," suggesting they were meant to be humorous.

Additionally, the webpage where these posts came from included a disclaimer stating, "This page contains satirical and parody stories that are exaggerated, fictional — created solely for entertainment purposes."

For background, here is whywe notify readers about rumors originating from sources that describe their content as funny or ironic.

Sources:

"FLORIDA MAN ATTEMPTS TO 'BAPTIZE' AN ALLIGATOR IN A WAFFLE HOUSE USING A PITCHER OF ICED TEA." Social Media. The Dude Humor Report, Facebook,https://www.facebook.com/TheDudeHumorReport/posts/pfbid023DpcqfmLbXscFHgzcGjGXCMXPJyzePkwaaqjkYwmLj5AJTMmFMMubNXSJM8EqkRal. 

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