Huge 3-legged alligator weighing 1.2K pounds wrangled in Texas neighborhood

Lifestyle

A man in Missouri City, Texas, was recently driving through his neighborhood late at night when we spotted something large on the side of the road.

The resident, Cornealous Greigg Jr., said he saw a “strange glare” so he stopped driving to take a look, FOX 26 Houston reported.

“I think it was the reflection because alligators have a distinct reflection from their eyes,” Greigg told the station.

Greigg realized he had stumbled upon an 11-foot, 1,200 pound, alligator. In footage recorded by Greigg, the gator appears to be missing a majority of its right limb

“A lot of our neighbors walk their dogs, they run, walk by reading books and the worse thing to do is wake up in the morning and there’s an alligator at your front door,” Greigg told FOX 26 Houston.

Greigg did the correct thing after running into the large reptile, experts shared with the station.

“I did not get out the car, I dialed 911 and I said, ‘I don’t know if this is an emergency, but I said there’s an alligator walking down the street and he’s pretty big,'” he stated.

A wrangler was notified arrived to the scene about an hour later, the station reported.

Griegg even saw the alligator’s tail whip the wrangler in his chest at one point during the three-hour capture, FOX 26 Houston shared.

This isn’t the first time Greigg and has had a run in with an alligator — he had images of a previous occurrence involving an alligator in his family’s swimming pool.

“We see these animals pretty often, if you don’t mess with him, he won’t mess with you,” Greigg commented.

American alligators are rather common in the state of Texas and range from “the Sabine River of East Texas to the Gulf of Mexico across the coastal marshes to the Rio Grande and we to around Interstate 35,” according to the DFW Wildlife Coalition in Dallas, Texas.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has a list of “Dos and Don’ts” on its website to provide locals with information on how best to live among alligators.

The organization provides warnings and safety tips on what to do if you have an encounter with an alligator.

“If you see an alligator in the roadway, DO NOT attempt to move it! Notify local authorities so the alligator can be handled safely,” the TPWD stated.

Citizens should contact the TWPD office to remove a nuisance gator from any domestic environment.

A nuisance gator is defined as “an alligator that is depredating [killing livestock or pets] or a threat to human health or safety” according to the Texas Administrative Code.

There’s no report as to how the alligator lost one of its limbs, but Timothy DeRamus, alligator wrangler for the State of Texas, has a theory. 

“Maybe he was threatened by another alligator and decided he wanted to get out of the water and get away from that alligator so he wouldn’t lose another limb,” DeRamus told the Houston Chronicle.

Fox News Digital reached out to DeRamus for comment.