So this happened a short while ago. Yeah, literal Tiger my neighborhood. Right after they brought it back inside they loaded it into an SUV and barreled out of their driveway over the lawn and fled from the police.

FYI The person with the gun is a friend & neighbor and an off duty LEO who lives in the ‘hood. He did an awesome job of controlling the situation.

In a video shared on a neighborhood forum you could hear the guy say he worked for the zoo - or something to that effect. But, I mean, it’s not like bringing home a laptop to WFH for the afternoon...

Most likely part of an illegal exotic animal sale/trade, but that’s not confirmed, just a guess. He did flee from the police, so....

From what I heard from the neighborhood scuttlebutt, the guy left his gf at the house while he fled with the tiger in his SUV.
No I don’t know any other details.

But I doubt he “works for the zoo.”

Also, if you’re going to do something shifty like keep an illegal tiger in a residential neighborhood, how stupid do you have to be to not notice it...got out?

I’ll add that apparently it’s legal to own a tiger in Texas because #texas. However it’s illegal in Houston city limits. However in unincorporated Harris County you need to pay a license fee, have papers & not have the tiger within 1,000ft of other homes/schools/etc.

But I still think it’s part of some illegal trade. The “owners” are renters for the property but I imagine they just voided their security deposit.

I’m sure you’ve all probably seen by now but HPD just had a brief press conference in the neighborhood and said the suspect is out on bond as a suspect for a Nov 2020 MURDER. He’s still at large with the tiger. Not sure if the tiger was the murder weapon.