[VIDEO] Police Catches 3-Foot-Long Alligator Scaring Woman at a Texas ATM

An alligator was caught on video by the police trashing near an ATM, after scaring a woman who was withdrawing cash in the city of Lake Worth, Texas, on Thursday, September 1.

The police response came after the woman was startled when she notices a "hissing sound" during her ATM transaction. It is unclear how the 3.5-foot alligator got into the city, which is far from its natural habitat.

Texas Alligator Video

The Lake Worth Police Department in its Twitter page posted the rescue video on Friday, September 2, with a headline that the alligator is already in custody. The tweet narrates its police force members responded to a wildlife call on a local ATM about a reported "hissing" gator near the electronic machine. Upon arrival, the police saw the relatively small crocodilian.

In the video, it can be heard that one of the officers claim they have never seen an alligator outside a lake before. Members of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TWPD) also arrived at the site to trap and rescue the alligator, who seemed to lost its way from its habitat.

The wildlife officials safely relocated the unnamed alligator into an "appropriate habitat" nearby.

Local Police Warning

The said police department reminds people not to handle wild animals on their own. In their Facebook page, the law enforcement says to leave such matters to the professionals, as cited by Fox News.

The post also clarifies that there were no animals or officers that were hurt during the incident.

One of the commentators in the Twitter post inquired if how the lake was close to the city, citing that people have been concerned about gators wandering in populated area of the lake at an increased rate in the past.

While the incident is apparently considered to be rare in Lake Worth, there have been similar cases in other parts of the United States in the past, with the most common being in Florida.

Texas Alligators

While the presence of the reptile near an ATM let alone in a city like Lake Worth is surprising, wildlife experts before have hinted that related cases of sightings or even alligator attacks have been a growing occurrence in recent years.

There are even instances where the wild animals often stumble on people's garages or even inside homes. These intrusions are in addition to the intervention of alligators or crocodiles during plays at golf courses.

In the Lone Star State, the TWPD says that while human populations continue to expand in Texas, there have also been an increased number of encounters between people and alligators.

The American alligator is commonplace in swamps, rivers, marshes, and about across the South US, including the eastern third of Texas. They are normally found in freshwater, they can also tolerate brackish water as well, the wildlife department adds.

Coming as an endangered species, the American gator is now a "protected game animal" in Texas, with special permits or related authorizations are required to hunt, possess, or raise alligators.