A man in Fulshear, Texas, stepped outside his home on his morning walk and bumped into something blocking the front porch. He told police it had felt, at first, like an Amazon package against the screen door. He couldn’t have been more incorrect, however. It was actually an alligator.
According to bodycam video shared by the Fulshear Police Department, officers arrived at the man’s home in the southeast Texas city on a recent Wednesday morning to find an alligator sitting on the porch. The animal was directly in front of the door, blocking the entrance. The man headed off to call for help once he found the alligator waiting.
Footage from the man’s emergency services call captured the moment he told the responding officer what he had walked into. The officer arrived, and when looking down at the alligator, gave a deadpan reaction while on camera about how strange-looking an Amazon package that would be.
Officers ultimately removed the alligator from the man’s porch and released it into a nearby pond, according to footage of the call, which has since been circulating online. The department said in a Facebook post that even Texas alligators have apparently been moving in search of higher ground in the current weather conditions.
See You Later, Alligator?
Since the homeowner initially banged his screen door against the alligator, it’s a good thing the animal didn’t get riled up and retaliate. Officers arrived to find the alligator still in place in front of the front door when they got there. It appeared to have been unmoved by either the man or being hit by the door.
In the bodycam video shared by the agency and aired by WFLA, the alligator can be seen sitting on the porch directly in front of the door as the responding officer approaches. The officer, looking down at the alligator, calmly handled the situation and made his quip about the Amazon package. All in all, a pretty stressful thing to have happen before your morning walk, but an ultimately nonviolent wildlife encounter that could have been much worse.
The Alligator’s Fate
The officers removed the alligator from the porch and released it into a nearby pond, according to the bodycam video. No one, including the alligator, was injured in the encounter. It seems the alligator was feeling particularly unaggravated that day.
The Fulshear Police Department posted the bodycam video to its Facebook page after the response, drawing a response from intrigued community members and animal lovers. There’s no word on whether the alligator is simply back in its habitat now, but it likely stalked off to go back to a more comfortable area bereft of humans.