Alligator removed from basement to ‘retire’ to animal sanctuary in Myrtle Beach

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WSOC) — Police took away a man’s pet that he’s had for 25 years, but the problem was it was an alligator. Now, the alligator is being shipped to an animal sanctuary in Myrtle Beach.

“Our 25-year-old scaly friend is retiring to an animal sanctuary in sunny Myrtle Beach,” police wrote on social media. “See ya later, alligator.”

EMS crews responded to a home in Ohio for a medical call, but while they were inside, they went to the basement and found a 5-foot alligator named Alli.

Dusty Rhoades said he got her at a reptile flea market when it was about a foot long — 25 years ago!

Police called in reinforcements from the Department of Agriculture, and they were able to wrestle the alligator into a crate.

“The way the property owner described it, he said ‘She won’t hurt you.’ Those were his words. I wasn’t going to test that theory,” Cmdr. Darrell Breneman from the Madison Township Police said. “Something new every day in law enforcement.”

Police said in Ohio it is illegal to have an exotic animal like an alligator unless you have a permit. Rhoades did not have a permit.