Restaurant owner wrangles alligator in Texas

MISSOURI CITY, Texas (KTRK) - A Texas man is a restaurant owner, a Jiu-Jitsu champion and now, he can add alligator wrangler to his resume.

Mike Trinh says he was getting the kids ready for their first day of school when a 5- to 6-foot alligator showed up on his driveway.

His daughter first alerted him about the wild animal, but he didn’t believe her.

“I walked in front. ‘Man! There’s an alligator! She ain’t lying!’” Trinh said.

He says he threw towels over its eyes to calm it down. It was something he had seen before on television.

“I’ve been watching Steve Irwin since I was a kid, you know what I mean, so it’s one of my heroes,” he said.

Next, he relied on what he has learned as a Jiu-Jitsu champion and MMA fighter.

“I took a sledgehammer. I didn’t hit it. I pinned the mouth. Once I got closer, I put my knee on it, and kind of like Jiu-Jitsu, it’s called knee in the belly. I had a knee on it, and spun to the back, sitting on the back and I just grabbed the mouth. Once you grab the mouth, that’s it,” Trinh said.

Instead of waiting on the game warden or a nuisance control hunter, Trinh used his own truck to release the alligator into Oyster Creek.

No animals or people were hurt in the process.

Trinh says he may hang the photos of his alligator wrangling experience on the walls of his restaurant.

The game warden says alligators less than 10 to 12 feet long that are not on public property are not considered emergency situations.

Copyright 2022 KTRK via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.