WOAI (San Antonio, Texas) 28 September 09 Wayward gator heads to new home (Kristina De Leon)

San Antonio: A North Side family was surprised to find a 3-foot-long alligator on their front lawn Monday morning.

Police originally had received a call for an alligator skittering across a nearby intersection around the 1600 block of La Manda shortly after 6 a.m. By the time police got there, that alligator was right up in Janie Diaz' front yard. And she says, she was glad they got here, just in time.

Diaz says, "I opened the door and I came out and said, 'Officer is there anything wrong?' 'Yeah, there's an alligator in the front of your yard.' 'Dijo what?!! How big!?' 'It's a little one ma'am, come and see it.' I said, 'no, no, no!'"

The alligator was making its way towards her door. But Officer Brian Christensen, who knows a thing or two about gators, kept that from happening.

Officer Christensen says, "It’s not that big, [and] coming from Georgia, I’ve had to deal with reptiles before and it takes a couple of people, and just be careful."

He and a fellow officer seized the reptile and bound its mouth with duct tape.

Police originally had received a call for an alligator skittering across a nearby intersection near the 1600 block of La Manda.

It was put in a police unit to await its pick up by Texas Parks and Wildlife staff. Alligators aren’t common to our area and it’s thought the gator came out of the close-by Martinez Creek near Basse Rd. and West Ave.

Game Warden David Chavez says, "It appears to be in good health, so what I’ll end up doing is releasing it back into its natural habitat."

TxPWD Warden Chavez says that natural habitat is a nearby river or Choke Canyon.
Wayward gator heads to new home

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• TX Press: Wayward gator to new home - W von Papineäu, Sun Oct 11 11:10:06 2009