A large alligator stunned guests at a Virginia motel when it was spotted outside their rooms.
6-Foot Alligator Terrorizes Guests at a Virginia Motel
It could be a Schitt's Creek storyline.
Guests at a Virginia motel were stunned when they set eyes on a six-foot alligator just casually toddling outside their rooms earlier this year.
Footage shared by local police showed just how large the beast was, which certainly will have surprised onlookers given that there is no known population of the toothy reptiles in Virginia.
In fact, the animal was there on its way from New York to a zoo in North Carolina — except alligators aren't allowed in that area of Virginia, so some law enforcement action had to happen in this case.
The gator was totally massive.
"D---, that is an alligator!" an officer can be heard saying in bodycam footage shared by the Fairfax County Police Department on social media.
"Yeah, there is actually an alligator outside of the hotel," the officer continued, making his way towards the gator with a flashlight.
Asked how big the reptile was, the officer said, "If I lay down next to it, probably about six feet."
Police shared footage of the alligator found outside a Virginia motel.
Toward the end of the video, the camera catches a closer-up view of the gator, demonstrating how large it was.
A person is walking next to it, presumed to be its owner.
After that, the officer addresses an eyewitness, telling them, "I would bring your dog inside. There's an alligator over here," to which the person somewhat hilariously responds, "I know, I want to see it."
A police officer spotted the alligator minding its business outside the motel.
The Police Department captioned the video, "What’s poppin’? A gator at your motel door, apparently. 🐊."
They further explained in the comments, "For background: Around 12:10 AM, officers responded to a motel on Richmond Hwy after someone spotted an alligator outside their room. Turns out, the owner was transporting it from NY to NC for a zoo. Since exotic animals like alligators aren’t allowed in VA, they were safely escorted out of the county."
The gator and its owner were escorted out of Fairfax County.
We weren't the only ones to think it — the comments section was full of comments making light-hearted fun of Florida.
"Nothing to see here, folks! Florida Man's in town and brought his pet gator with him. 🤦♂️," one person joked.
"I first thought, 'eh, another gator at a motel, you do you, Florida,'" said someone else. "Then saw it was Fairfax County and recognized it as the motel on Route 1 in Alexandria...someone brought their swamp puppy to town!"
"Most Florida thing ever 'I know I want to see it' 😂😂," added a third person.
They make a point: It's usually animals like deer and horses getting themselves into scrapes in Virginia, not gigantic bitey lizards.