By Chris Cosci

When driving, most people try their hardest to avoid hitting small animals on the road, such as squirrels, rabbits or possums. However, when the animal is a 6-foot alligator, a simple swerve won't always do the trick. So discovered 49-year-old Leslie Strickland after she accidentally struck an alligator while driving home one evening in Florida. Normally, this would be just another unfortunate situation in nature, but Strickland wanted to do something about it. And though she claims to have had only good intentions, we all know where that road leads.

After spotting the injured animal, Strickland lifted it into the back of her car - a Honda Accord. Although not the smallest car on the market, the Accord still probably isn't the most appropriate vehicle for alligator transportation. But Strickland loaded the alligator in anyway and somehow managed to make it home safely. At home, Strickland washed her patient off and tried to contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

There's just one problem. Okay, there are a number of problems, but let's go with the most important one: it is illegal to be in possession of an alligator in Florida. After her neighbors brought this to her attention, Strickland cracked, and the floodgates of insanity burst open. Under pressure, and against every law of logic and sanity, she made a conscious decision to load the alligator back into her car and drive off, hoping to find a pond where she could release the injured animal.

Now if this were a movie, this would be the point when the seemingly calm and docile alligator suddenly comes to life, thrashes its tail around, and startles the driver, causing her to veer off the road and get into an accident. But this isn't a movie; this is the real world. Nonetheless, that is exactly what happened. Apparently fate could no longer resist the temptation.

Noticing the alligator suddenly moving behind her, Strickland became distracted, swerved off the road, hit a mailbox, and got stuck in a ditch. Unable to get her car moving again, Strickland made another slightly-less-than-inspired decision. She got out and walked away. That's right - she left her car stranded in a ditch with an injured, 6-foot alligator in the back seat. Strickland admits that she panicked. In her defense, there aren't a lot of guides that tell you what to do if you suddenly find yourself stuck in a ditch in a car with a large, carnivorous animal.

The local police arrived at the scene, and through careful investigation and thorough detective work, they managed to track down Strickland. They charged her with leaving the scene of an accident and possession of an alligator, or as they call that combo in Florida - the usual.

But that's not where the story ends (you didn't really think it was that easy, did you?). Already down 2-0 in her decision-to-success ratio, Strickland goes for the hat trick. Not wanting to go to jail, Strickland struggled with the police as they were trying to put handcuffs on. Now you can add resisting arrest to the list of charges.

Of course, resisting arrest is a cheap offense. Anybody can pull that off. But Strickland had one more wonderfully devious trick up her sleeve - a delightfully ingenious twist that really put the proverbial icing on the cake. As it turns out, all the time she was driving around, hitting alligators and crashing into ditches, Strickland was driving with a suspended license. Even the world's greatest criminals couldn't have devised such an intricate array of misconduct.

So, after all was said and done, Strickland spent a night in jail charged with a remarkable quartet of charges. And because that little "possession of an alligator" charge is really a felony, Strickland will have to start preparing herself for a court appearance. My suggestion to Strickland: when going to court, take a taxi.