Fugitive alligator strolls across Montreal street
Mayssam Samaha was sipping coffee with friends Sunday afternoon around 1 p.m. when a nearly two-metre-long alligator strolled across Jarry Street in Montreal.
She rushed outside and captured a video of the reptile as it ambled across traffic lanes and went under a parked car on the other side.
“A few minutes after we saw it, a guy came and picked it up and put it back in his minivan,” said Samaha, a food and travel writer who posted the video on Twitter. A small crowd gathered, with people filming the tropical animal in the sub-zero temperature, she said.
“I was just worried about the alligator,” she said.
“If you want an alligator, it should not be out on the street in this cold weather.”
As people flocked outside to watch, the café’s owner called the police, she said.
“Apparently, it was a very funny phone call because they didn’t quite believe him. They thought he was on something,” Samaha said.
“While we were waiting for the police, he went to see the firefighters because there’s a fire station a block over, which was also a funny conversation.”
After the presumed owner put the animal in the minivan, the police arrived and interviewed the man, she said.
Mayor Valérie Plante, who responded to Samaha’s tweet by saying she would get a city crew on the case, later tweeted that the alligator, who had all of the proper permits and was part of an educational project, had been safely returned to its owner.
Anita Kapuscinska, a spokesperson for the Montreal SPCA, said police acted quickly and the SPCA was not involved.
“We’re very glad they were able to deal with the situation quickly and safely,” she said.
In 2016, a fugitive python was recaptured after being on the loose in Verdun for nearly a week.