Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
FULSHEAR, Texas — Apprehending alligators is just part of a routine day for police in Fulshear, Texas.
An officer in the Houston suburb apprehended one of the reptiles — a small one — with his bare hands last month, removing the critter from the porch of some startled homeowners. Turns out it was the second capture of the day for Lt. Bill Henry.
"We have a message for Lt. Bill Henry after watching his body cam video: 'You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy,'" the Fulshear Police Department said in a Facebook post featuring video of the bare-handed apprehension.
Video footage from the incident came from Henry's body camera and shows his carefree attitude, unintimidated by the hissing animal. "I got a pole, but this one's kind of small, so I'll grab it," he tells the residents of the home — standing a good 20 feet from the animal — as he arrives.
Small but angry! A police officer was able to wrangle this small alligator sitting in front of a home in Fulshear, Texas.
— Action News 5 (@WMCActionNews5) August 30, 2024
(Credit: Fulshear Police Department /TMX) pic.twitter.com/SGdsZyfBtg
Without breaking stride, he walks to the porch, quickly surveys the situation, grabs the squirming creature around the neck and by the tail and hauls it off. "Look at you, you're a hero," you can hear a woman say.
Later, Henry told Houston television station KHOU he had apprehended an alligator earlier that same day, using a pole on that occasion because the animal was partially hidden in vegetation. Both alligators were relocated, Henry said, also noting that Fulshear police get trained to deal with the reptiles given their presence in and around the city.
Indeed, Houston television station KPRC aired a report in 2021 about the capture of a much larger alligator in Fulshear measuring around 8 feet long and weighing 600-700 pounds. Video of that apprehension shows one officer roping it like a calf and then he and four other policemen dragging it across a street to a nearby lake, where it was released.
I've come across deer and even a turkey in my neighborhood in Utah — so far, no mountain lions — and that's plenty enough for me.
