Man celebrating Father's Day helps capture alligator on Texas beach

BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas (WLS) -- A Texas man is being hailed as a Father's Day hero after wrestling an alligator down before it's able to attack his family and others.

Mitchell Davis was celebrating near Surfside Beach in Brazoria County when the seven-foot alligator came paddling just 20 to 30 feet from the beach.

The gator started thrashing back and forth when a nearby fisherman accidentally hooked into it.

Davis and a group of men jumped into action. They got a rope around the gator's neck and eventually threw a wet towel over its head to blind him.

"I grabbed a hold of the jaws and picked back up on his head, that way somebody could rope him, or tape his mouth up, so you know he couldn't bite me no more," Davis said.

A warden was called in to retrieve the alligator and release him back into the wild.