Small Town Misfit

Brazoria, TX
A day after police found a 41?2-foot long water moccasin in the car of William Eric Johnson, authorities discovered a live, 6-foot alligator lounging in his back seat.

“It was like Crocodile Dundee, Brazoria style,” Brazoria Police Chief Neal Longbotham said.

Johnson, 30, had “several addresses,” including one in Tennessee but was possibly living at a trailer park in the 500 block of West San Bernard Street in Brazoria, Longbotham said. Johnson was charged with burglary of a habitation early Sunday after he was found with items missing from a trailer in the same park, Department of Public Safety Trooper Steven Stanfield said.

Johnson also was cited by a game warden for illegally possessing an alligator.

Johnson is accused of entering the trailer home of his employer’s son and stealing a Wii video game controller and a hair trimmer, among other items.

Longbotham said Johnson asked a neighbor to help him load some of the items into the Buick.

“A TV was too big for him to carry by himself, so he knocked on a door and asked for help getting it into his car,” Longbotham said. “The neighbor saw the man and the alligator and wanted no part of that.”

Johnson apparently drove toward Angleton on Highway 35 with the alligator loose in the back seat, police said. He caught Stanfield’s attention upon making a U-Turn near the intersection of highways 35 and 288.

“He made a second U-Turn and almost hit a car at a stop sign on the feeder road,” Stanfield said. “I pulled him over and, lo and behold, he had a 6-foot alligator in the back seat.

“He said he found it on the road and decided to get out and capture it,” Stanfield said. “It’s mouth wasn’t taped, it wasn’t bound. It was crawling around in the guy’s car. … He said he was taking him to a friend’s house.”

Be sure to check out the rest of the story in The Facts

Thanks Kathy!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 10:12 pm and is filed under Animal Control, B&E, Just Plain Creepy. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.