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Cops find alligator inside Long Island home

Published  January 16, 2019 5:14pm EST
Long Island
FOX 5 New York
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Authorities confiscated an alligator from a home in Hauppauge, N.Y., Jan. 16, 2019. (Suffolk County SPCA)

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (FOX 5 NY) - Police detectives who came to a home on Long Island discovered an alligator living there.

The cops contacted the Suffolk County SPCA, which responded to the house in Hauppauge with the state Department of Environment Conservation.

SPCA detectives confiscated the foot-long reptile. Keeping an alligator without a special permit is illegal in New York.

"Alligators are not only illegal, they are dangerous," Suffolk SPCA Chief Roy Gross said in a statement. He added that the alligator will be sent to an animal sanctuary in Massachusetts.

In recent years, authorities in the New York area have captured and confiscated dozens of potentially dangerous reptiles. Many of these snakes, alligators, and caimans are not legal pets. Authorities suspect that in some cases people keep the reptiles as pets and then abandon them when they grow too big.