Texas man takes down alligator using techniques he learned from Steve Irwin
A great story but seriously, do not try this at home.
Steve Irwin, "Crocodile Hunter" cut-out
When a headline mentions anything about “wrestling gators,” you might expect it to be the shenanigans of a “Florida Man.” However, this gator story takes place further west in Missouri City, Texas … and it was indirectly brought to us by the late great “Crocodile Hunter” himself, Steve Irwin.
“What a morning,” Mike Trinh wrote on his Facebook post. Trinh had been preparing to take his youngest daughter to her first day in middle school when the girl ran to him yelling that an alligator was at the front door.
Thinking it a get-out-of-school ploy, Trinh didn’t take it seriously. That is, until he saw the creature himself.
Luckily, Trinh knew exactly what to do, thanks to a certain wildlife icon.
“All my years watching Steve Irwin, I figured I can deal with any wildlife as long as it ain’t a stingray,” Trinh wrote. He shared with ABC 13 that Irwin was one of his “heroes” and he'd been watching him since childhood.
Trinh might have used what he dubbed “Steve Irwin tactics” including covering the alligator's eyes and pinning its mouth closed, but he also added his own spin, using Brazilian jiujitsu.
“Once I got closer, I put my knee on it. In jiu-jitsu, it's called 'knee in belly.' I had a knee on it, spun to the back, sat on it, and then grabbed the mouth,” Trinh told ABC 13.
And as Trinh learned from Irwin, “Once you grab the mouth, that's it. It's done.”
How does Trinh’s technique compare with Irwin’s? Judging by this video below, not bad.
Here we see Irwin making sure the the crocodile’s eyes and mouth are incapacitated, and making sure to stay on top of it. Although that second part wasn’t so easy—two other full grown men had to come in and assist.
Of course, the obvious caveat in all of this is Irwin was a trained professional and had been catching crocs since the ripe old age of 9. The man had successfully rescued hundreds of them, according to the Irwin family’s official website.
Plus, the Crocodile Hunter had the utmost respect and reverence for the creatures he worked with. Even in the above video, he put his own life on the line in an attempt to rescue wildlife.
Bottom line: Maybe don’t try this at home. Even if you’re the biggest Irwin fan of all time.
Still, it did make for a cool story. And it seems to have been a success. Trinh applied everything he learned from Irwin and even gave his daughter a lesson too, as she had to “tie up the mouth.” Seems like the kind of hands-on teaching style Irwin would be proud of.
Like many of “The Crocodile Hunter”’s famed catches, this Texas alligator got a happy ending, as Trinh was finally able to load him in a truck and relocate him to a nearby pond.
Sometimes you never know when the things you learn will come in handy. But when they do, it just might be a surprise that’ll make you say “Crikey!”
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