12-foot alligator captured in middle of road in Harris County neighborhood

ATASCOSITA, Texas - While you may run into traffic on Monday morning, you won’t have to worry about running into this on your commute.

The Harris County Precinct 4 Constables' Office shared photos of a 12-foot alligator that was captured in a neighborhood near Atascocita.

MORE: Nearly 11-foot alligator captured in Cinco Ranch subdivision

Constable deputies responded to a report of an alligator that was in the middle of the road in the 13800 block of N Lake Brand Lane in the Waters Edge subdivision.

The constable’s office says the gator was safely captured and is now in animal control’s possession.

Just last week, a nearly 11-foot alligator was captured in the Cinco Ranch subdivision. However, the 1100-pound animal is a big boy, not just by our standards. He’s longer than 12 feet and is one of the largest ever caught in this area.

"Look. He’s trying to move away from me, and he’s hissing," says Timothy Deramus the Owner of Bayou City Gator Savers, but before the angry alligator so eloquently expressed itself to Wrangler Tim, the gator got up close and personal with Joey Coomer in Water’s Edge Sub-Division as Coomer left for work and saw an alligator near his driveway at 5:00 a.m.  

"The hiss and growl that came from her she most definitely wanted me to know she was there," Coomer explains, and he says he doesn’t usually speak gator but says she was clearly telling him to stay away from her. "100% and she got everything she wanted," Coomer laughs.

Soon it was Wrangler Tim to the rescue. 

"He’s such a big animal. He’s solid muscle. When he’s goes to twisting and turning he could smash us together. Knock our heads together so hard he could knock us out," Tim explains.

"Our subdivision is connected to Lake Houston and you see 2, 3-foot alligators in retention ponds," Coomer adds.

"He was actually 12 foot 4 inches," Tim says. 

So the 10-year gator wrangling veteran needed a little assistance and Coomer and his super starched jeans jumped right in to help. 

"The tail smacked me. It hit me when we were lifting him up from the tow truck and luckily the crease in my jeans it held that tail off," Coomer jokes referring to his perfectly pressed blue jeans with a starched crease that apparently not even wrangling a gator can wrinkle.

Actually, Tim says a swipe from a gator’s tail can deliver a blow four times harder than if a professional baseball player hit you with his bat, and he knows gators. Tim often takes his work home with him, literally. He ties the gators to trees in his yard before delivering them to wildlife sanctuaries. He has three there right now. Try explaining that to the neighbors.

"They’ve seen probably about 300 alligators in my yard, not all at one time," Tim smiles, even as he tells me about the three times he’s been bitten by alligators, including recently by a gator in Galveston.

"It tended to mess up my thumb a bit. So whenever I get around these big alligators knowing I was bitten that one time it makes me really nervous to get around big gators. They have 80 teeth that have 3500 to 5500 PSI of pressure that can just crush your bones if they grab a hold of you," Tim explains.

"Mr. Tim said I can help him out a little bit. Every now and then. He stamped me as a helper, not a full-blown wrangler. Those boys in Louisiana better watch out," Coomer laughs and adds. "What a way to start a Monday."   

Wildlife experts say if a gator is in its natural habitat there’s no need to call an expert but if he’s in a neighborhood you certainly want to call for help. By the way, Tim says we’re seeing more gators in residential areas because the heat and low water levels are driving them out of creeks, lakes and bayous as they look for different sources of water and shade.