The reptile police removed from a home in Middlebury on Monday night is an alligator, state officials have concluded, and he's now on his way to Massachusetts to live with other alligators and crocodiles.
An officer responding to a medical call at the home over the weekend noticed what appeared to be an American Alligator in an aquarium and reached out to Middlebury's Animal Control officer.
On Monday, James Roy, the animal control officer from Middlebury, arrived at the house and took the foot-long reptile named Zeke into custody.
“I was in utter amazement. I never thought in all my life I’d be dealing with something like this,” James Roy, the animal control officer from Middlebury, said.
Fortunately, he took a class last month from a reptile expert who taught him how to deal with exotic animals.
The owner told police he believed it was a lizard and got it two or three months earlier from a man in Waterbury and did not have the man's name, police said.
“He was more pushing toward the thought of it being a lizard. Whether or not he truly knows it was an alligator, I can’t say for sure,” Roy said.
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On Tuesday, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection confirmed that Zeke was an American Alligator.
It is illegal to own an alligator in Connecticut, but there is currently no penalty for owning one, according to police.
Now, Zeke is heading to Rainforest Reptiles in Massachusetts
