Maybe the cop was drinking on the job?
Daily Mail
They don't get many alligators in the suburbs of land-locked Kansas City, but if and when they do the local police like to think they can handle it.
Officers responding to a rare sighting in the suburb of Independence, Missouri, left nothing to chance.
Seeing the alligator's head lurking menacingly in the weeds leading down to a pond they fired off one shot with perfect precision.
Noting that the beast hadn't moved, they fired again.
When they saw the bullet bounce off the gator's head they realised that they were tackling a concrete lawn ornament.
A Independence police spokesman said, in defence of the officers, it was growing dark when the incident occurred.
The drama began when a neighbour who had not spotted the fake gator before called 911 to report that his children spotted the monster while they were playing in some nearby woods.