Massive 12-foot alligator snapped up by tow truck after stalking Houston suburb 

A huge alligator believed to be more than 12 feet long had to be removed by tow truck after the mischievous animal sneaked into a residential area.

The reptile was spotted on the street in Atascocita, Texas, early in the morning of September 19.

Once on the scene, Harris County Constable Precinct 4 officers discovered the 12-foot alligator in the middle of the road and have since gone viral on Facebook, as users were amazed at the alligator’s sheer size.

An experienced trapper was called in with a pickup truck and was able to contain the alligator.

However, it was simply too big to move without further assistance, requiring police to call a tow truck company to lift the beast onto the back of the vehicle.

“Goodbye, alligator!” Officer Mark Herman wrote, as his Facebook post garnered more than 1,300 likes and hundreds of comments.

This morning, agents from Constable Mark Herman’s office responded to the 13800 block of N Lake Branch Lane in the Waters Edge subdivision in Atascocita regarding a 12-foot alligator in the middle of the road.

“The alligator is safely captured and in the possession of the Animal Protection Agency.”

Users are shocked by the giant reptile, and many compare it to a “dinosaur.”

One person commented, “So there are just dinosaurs roaming the neighborhoods now?”

“That’s a whole dinosaur!” wrote another user.

“That’s a big one!” wrote someone else.

After the latest sighting, a Facebook user joked, “He needs to go to Gator Country!”

“This alligator is actually 12ft 4in. I was there when they measured it,” added another.

‘OMG. I don’t know what I would do if I encountered an alligator on the road,” another user wrote.

“Yeah, I ran into him on a kayak in the water. No more fun,’ someone else added.

Eyewitness Michael Schwab said the animal looked like a dinosaur and was truly “a sight to behold.”

He added: “He was struggling. He looked tired, but it was an early stage where they removed him, and it was probably one of the craziest things I’ve seen in terms of animals.”

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, despite several recent sightings of alligators in urban areas, officials have not noticed an increase in their population.

Local experts say alligators are more active in the spring and summer because of the heat.

Likewise, when there is a drought in the area, such as earlier this summer, alligators go in search of water.

Last week, an 11-foot alligator was captured in Katy, Texas.

Authorities found the reptile prowling the grass near Buffalo Bayou and then captured and tied it up before being transported.

The giant reptile was then taken to Gator Country, a reptile sanctuary with “nuisance gators,” or alligators found and captured in residential areas.

The sanctuary has more than 450 reptiles and says they are “the only refuge for nuisance alligators in Texas,” according to the website.

The amazing videos come just days after another huge 10-foot-long alligator was spotted strapped to the back of a car on a Florida highway.

This particular animal appeared to have been hunted as part of Florida’s annual alligator hunting season, allowing permitted hunters to harvest the alligators.

About 5,000 people apply for just 7,000 permits each year, with alligators harvested ranging from nearly three feet to nearly fourteen feet in length.

Wildlife experts estimate that Florida has 1.3 million alligators of any size, while Texas is estimated to have only 400,000 thousand.

Fatal alligator attacks are rare in the United States and usually occur about once a year.