Alligator Captured at Texas School's Doorstep

Digital Vision/Thinkstock(KATY, Texas) — A lot of people get excited about the start of the new school year, apparently including at least one 7-foot-long alligator in a Houston suburb.

An employee at Beck Junior High School in Katy, Texas, spotted the gator around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday holding its ground right outside one of the school’s doors.

School employees called police to take the alligator away and make sure it is not there when students return for their first day of school on Aug. 25.

“One of our deputies is kind of a veteran at doing this type of thing,” Bob Haenel of the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office told ABC News. “After several attempts of trying to rope the alligator, he managed to put a towel over the gator’s head to calm him down and then roped him.”

The alligator was transported to a more “natural habitat” away from the school, Haenel said, adding that it might have come from a nearby bayou.

The Sheriff’s Office tweeted a photo of the gator Wednesday.

“I think the whole thing was over by around 10:30 a.m.,” Haenel said.


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