Lowell cops capture wayward reptile
Lowell cops say they captured a foot-long alligator as it took a stroll down the road Sunday evening — the second time in four years a gator was found loose in the city.
“Nobody got bit, so that’s a good thing,” Lowell police Capt. Timothy Crowley told the Herald.
Officers responding to numerous calls from people who said they spotted the little alligator about 7:30 p.m. found the reptile walking along South Walker Street.
Crowley said the area residents who notified police after seeing the alligator did the right thing by staying away from it and calling for help — even if the authorities were a bit skeptical.
“I’m not sure they believed it at first,” Crowley said of the responding officers.
But after they realized the alligator report was legit, Crowley said Lowell cops called the animal control officer, who netted the wayward alligator and put it in a crate.
Police say the alligator will be staying at Wignall Animal Hospital in Lowell before it is taken to Rainforest Reptile Shows, a Beverly-based educational program.
This is not the first time Lowell has had to deal with alligators — police captured a slightly larger gator they found swimming in the canal in 2012. Crowley said keeping alligators as pets is illegal in Massachusetts, and that the gator’s owners likely realized they were no longer able to take care of it but didn’t want to turn it in and face the consequences of owning an illegal animal.
“These people probably realized they were no longer able to provide the care it needed,” Crowley said, “but they should’ve made a better choice in the way they disposed of it.”