It's not every day that you see an alligator of any size strutting down an L.A. street, including one in Venice.
However, Animal Control officials said to their amazement, they got a call from police saying that a Venice resident had come face to face with a 2-foot alligator in the front yard of their home in the 200 block of 4th Street on Wednesday morning.
Animal Control officer Troy Boswall said LAPD managed to put the gator in a trash can before calling for a pickup. A graveyard officer picked him up and brought him back to Animal Control offices.
"This animal was probably brought in by somebody who visited Florida, or purchased it somewhere. Some part of the country, these things are easy to get. In California, we obviously frown on this sort of thing," he said. "This animal escaped from somebody. This isn't something that wandered out of the bush somewhere here."
Officials said they were glad they only had to lasso a baby alligator, because if it had grown to its full size, they would have really been concerned.
The search is now on for whoever brought the animal to town.
"I spent three months in the jungle, so I'm not fazed by wildlife, and you know, a 3-foot gator is nothing to sneeze at, but probably not going to bother you," said Venice resident Raina Brody.
Brody said she thought the incident was a little weird, "but this is Venice, weird stuff happens here," she said with a laugh.
That resident summed it up with a "Welcome to Venice."
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