7-foot alligator refuses to leave Fort Bend County driveway

FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas – A alligator did not want to leave a driveway Thursday morning on Forster Canyon Lane in Fort Bend County.

The 350-pound, 7 1/2-foot alligator, blind in her right eye, crawled onto the driveway overnight.  The homeowner’s adult son spotted her. 

"He was just going to school and saw this guy and said, 'Oh! dad, there's a big alligator,'” homeowner Alkesh Patel said.

Patel called the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office, which got in touch with the Gator Squad’s Christy Kroboth. 

Kroboth slowly pulled the gator into the front yard. With the help of two sheriff’s deputies, she taped its mouth shut and put a blanket over her eyes to calm her down. 

"I was surprised Kroboth was by herself," Patel said.  "And she came in and she knew exactly what she was doing, so... she did an excellent job of just capturing it real quick and getting it out of here."

Kroboth and the deputies loaded the gator into her small SUV.  She said it will go to an alligator farm in
El Campo. 

"So this neighborhood, as we pulled in, she should have been over there. What probably happened was she was wandering around at night looking for food," Kroboth said. "She's cold blooded. So the cement holds a lot of warmth. So the sun probably came up too fast and she got scared and went to hide. She picked the wrong hiding place, the garage."