A road-tripping reptile was escorted out of a Fairfax County, Virginia, motel by police overnight. [connatix_element_embed script_id=c83c682a78f5430ab4d9bf80a7443f60 player_id=7bc491b4-922b-4e8d-b1b1-150648e80442 video_id=7c1d60c0-6ad6-4ad3-9edd-867345fea755 align=right]
Just after midnight on Monday, a motel guest who had spotted an alligator outside their room called Fairfax County police, according to a statement from the police department.
The carnivorous predator waddled along the sidewalk as police escorted it out of the Huntington motel — and eventually, out of Fairfax County entirely.
The alligator’s owner was taking it from New York to a zoo in North Carolina, according to police.
Body camera footage from an officer who responded to the motel in the 5900 block of Richmond Highway shows him shining his flashlight to take a better look at the swampy reptile, laying right outside a room’s door.
When asked by a dispatcher about how big the reptile is, the officer replied, “If I lay down next to it, probably about 6 feet.”
A police spokesperson later said it’s estimated the animal weighs about 400 pounds.
“I would bring your dog inside, there’s an alligator over here,” the responding officer told a person in the motel’s parking lot.
Animal stories
Officers, including animal protection police, were able to remove the animal.
“Due to Virginia state code, which prohibits the possession of certain exotic animals not native to the Commonwealth, the alligator and its owner were safely escorted out of the county,” a spokesperson for police told WTOP.
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