By Akinwale Akinyoade
04 March 2020 |
5:55 pm
If you are to raid the basement of most people’s homes, you would likely find spiders or rats lurking around with the last animal in mind being an alligator. Ohio police officers were left shocked when they were recently called to an Ohio home and found a large alligator in the basement of a house.…
The alligator | Madison Township Police Department
If you are to raid the basement of most people’s homes, you would likely find spiders or rats lurking around with the last animal in mind being an alligator.
Ohio police officers were left shocked when they were recently called to an Ohio home and found a large alligator in the basement of a house.
The police received an unusual tip in Madison Township and they discovered a fully grown, 5-foot-long American alligator that had been living in the basement for 25 years.
“I’ve been a police officer 17 years, and I’ve never come across an alligator,” Madison Township Patrol Commander Darrel Breneman told the station.
Breneman said police got a call Friday from paramedics saying they had just responded to a home in Groveport and they could not believe what they saw in the basement, the station reported.
The alligator | CNN
The alligator was living in a tub-like structure with water and a sump pump.
Its owner Dusty Rhoades told WBNS-TV that he got Alli at a reptile flea market.
“I just got him when he was about a foot long. I’ve had him ever since,” he said.
The homeowner said her son bought the gator at a reptile flea market 25 years ago and had kept it in the basement ever since,
Rhoades was in possession of the alligator without an exotic animal permit but avoided being cited after agreeing to voluntarily surrender the alligator to state wildlife officials, Fox 28 reported.
The alligator from Groveport was checked out and found to be in average health for an alligator living in captivity, according to the station.
“It didn’t require any special care,” Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Shelby Croft told CNN.
Alli will eventually have a new home at an alligator sanctuary in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
“They kind of grow to the size of the enclosure that they’re in, so he’s not reached his full potential, and I think it’s pretty exciting to know that he’s going to an alligator sanctuary in a warmer climate where he can reach his full potential and experience that,” Breneman told the station.
Wildlife officials will take the animal an animal sanctuary in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where it will enjoy its retirement in the warmer weather.
