Elvis The Croc Steals Zookeepers' Lawnmower

(NewsCore) - One of Australia's crankiest crocodiles lived up to his fierce reputation Wednesday after charging a pair of zookeepers and stealing one of their lawnmowers.

The 50-year-old 16-foot (five-meter) saltwater crocodile named Elvis lost two teeth as he charged two staff from the Australian Reptile Park at Somersby, north of Sydney, biting a lawnmower and dragging it into his pond, The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph reported.

The male staff had entered the crocodile's enclosure about 9:00am local time to do routine maintenance work when the unpredictable beast, dubbed the zoo's unhappiest resident, lunged.

Using their lawnmowers to keep the crocodile at bay the keepers where able to escape uninjured.

The park's marketing manager Libby Bain told news website ninemsn that staff were busy getting the park ready and used two lawnmowers rather than one.

"He's very used to one mower but we think the second one is what's triggered him," Bain said.

She told Australian Associated Press that keepers were planning on distracting Elvis with raw kangaroo meat while they looped a rope around the mower to retrieve it.

"Obviously we have to go in and retrieve the mower. It's not something we think he would eat but it's encroaching on his territory and he believes it is his," she said.

The crocodile was moved to the park in 2008 after he began causing problems by climbing into fishing boats in Darwin harbor in Australia's north.

"He's a monster. He's the unfriendliest crocodile you would ever have the pleasure of meeting," Bain said.

Read more: (Sydney) Daily Telegraph