(UnitedVoice.com) – It’s not unusual to find an alligator lounging in a Florida pond or walking across a golf course. In fact, you can find them almost everywhere in the south — there’s even a television show “Swamp People” that follows gator hunters. Michigan, however, is not somewhere a person would expect to find the reptile.
On August 1, Stanton Department of Public Works employee Andy Bills was checking out sewage ponds when he noticed something odd. An alligator walked out of the weeds along the shore and wandered into the water. Bills, who often checks out the turtles in the pond, was shocked.
“It took me a good minute or so to gather my thoughts and try to figure out if I really just saw what I thought I saw,” Bills said.
The city employee sprang into action after he realized what he’d seen. He called his coworkers and his boss, then went home to grab his fishing rod. He cast a few times and finally hooked the gator.
Once the small gator was secured, a Michigan Department of Natural Resources officer took it to the Wilderness Trails Zoo. DNR Sergeant Jason Smith was shocked to see the gator. “You can fit all of our alligator training in a thimble,” he said.
Authorities aren’t sure how it ended up in the pond, but Bills thinks someone may have abandoned it.
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