Monday, April 30, 2007

"Gator Stops Traffic"

It seems alligators are showing up more and more around San Antonio.

From KSAT-TV:

SAN ANTONIO -- An 8-foot alligator created quite a challenge for San Antonio police when it showed up Sunday at Loop 410 on the city's South Side.

The large gator stood its ground against police when they tried to move it off the roadway with some poles.

The reptile became aggressive, hissed at the officers and even chomped down on the bumper of a police cruiser.


I swear, gators didn't used to be so common around here. Houston, yeah; but not here. Now they seem to be popping up in all kinds of places around the city.

Maybe it's global warming.

UPDATE: USAToday picked up on the excitement ("Illegally parked alligator snarls Texas traffic"):
"I don't remember any of this in the academy," police Officer Albert Silva said of the traffic jam early Sunday. "As far as I know, there's no procedure on this other than: 'Don't get bit."'
Sounds like good advice to me.

4 comments:

AlanDP said...

Nope. Only a matter of time. They've been common as anything in Atascosa County and other parts south for years and years.

Albatross said...

Actually, a friend of mine who grew up on the Southside said gators have been in Mitchell Lake for some time. I guess, having grown up on the opposite side of town, I just didn't get a chance to see any as a kid. Still, it is pretty funny that this one shut down Loop 410 while the police did what they could to wrestle it off the roadway. And, the gator got a good bite in on one of the patrol cars!

AlanDP said...

I was thinking about that. Mitchell Lake was closed for most of its existence, because it was used in water reclamation. The only time it was open to people was for special bird-watching events. A big lake like that where people aren't normally allowed to go would be a perfect place for gators. The only thing that surprises me is how big it was. That sucker was huge.

Albatross said...

The funniest part about the whole story is how the police officers put orange traffic cones around the gator! Oh, I laughed so hard when I saw that!