TEXAS — Central Florida is known for alligator sightings in and around the water.

READ: Alligator hunting season starts in Florida with expanded time, weapons

But a man in Texas was surprised to see an alligator in his driveway.

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When Mike Trinh’s daughter warned him about the gator in their driveway on the first day of school, he though it was a joke.

Trinh quickly learned his daughter wasn’t looking to get out of school and the gator was very real.

Trinh jumped into action and said he used his Jiu Jistsu skills to wrangle the reptile.

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“I took a sledge hammer. I didn’t hit it. I pinned the mouth,” Trinh said. “Once I got closer, I put my knee on it. In Jui Jitsu, it’s called knee in belly. I had a knee on it, spinned to the back, sat on it and grabbed the mouth. Once you grab the mouth, that’s it. It’s done.”

Trinh also threw a towel over the gator’s eyes to help calm it down, a trick he said he learned by watching the late “Crocodile Hunter,” Steve Irwin.

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The gator was eventually released into a nearby creek by Trinh.

Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Coalition advise people to never make contact with an alligator and instead are asked to report gator activity to FWC’s Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-392-4286.

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