Alligator Found Not Wearing Seat Belt

[faze]

Date: Jun 11, 2004 - 03:01 PM
Cops are used to seeing dogs poking their noses out of car windows — but not alligators.

A black BMW was pulled over on Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia Tuesday after an off-duty officer saw a distinctly reptilian snout protruding from the front passenger-side window, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

(Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,122392,00.html)

Inside was Petey, a 3½-foot-long gator, happily sitting in the lap of his owner, 29-year-old Danya Johnson.

"She was very distraught when the alligator was taken away from her," said police spokesman Inspector William Colarulo.

Johnson was cited under an ordinance that forbids wild animals within city limits, and was scheduled to appear in court next month. The car's driver was not cited.

Petey was turned over to the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Association.

Johnson could not be reached for comment, but Colarulo said he believed she had raised the beast since infancy. As a relative youngster, Petey was far from his maximum possible size of 12 feet and 550 pounds.

Were Johnson able to hold onto him, she could have had Petey for a long time. Alligators live about 55 years, according to the Inquirer.

Philadelphia cops found a different alligator loose in the western part of the city last summer, and another was pulled out of a creek in 1995.

Colarulo says he's seen an emu running down Roosevelt Boulevard and a Bengal tiger in a North Philly row house.

"You can just add this to the annals of wild and bizarre animal stories in the city," he told the newspaper.

(Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,122392,00.html)