Cpl. Tonna Marek, a 20-year veteran of the Nampa Police Department in Idaho, had never seen an alligator.
It’s Idaho, after all, a state famous for its potatoes and wide-open spaces. It’s not swampland.
That all changed this week after the department’s dispatch center received a 911 call from a local man with a hard-to-believe story: There was an alligator underneath his camp trailer in the backyard.
“Our first instinct was, ‘Obviously, this guy’s either crazy or it’s some kid’s float toy out of a swimming pool, because we don’t have alligators here,” Marek told USA TODAY on Wednesday night.
Turns out there’s at least one.
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In sharing the story on Twitter, the Nampa Police Department expressed astonishment.
“This is Nampa, IDAHO not Tampa, FLORIDA, but we found ourselves helping Idaho Fish & Game on this call last night,†police tweeted. “We sometimes herd cows, horses, occasionally deal w/deer and even a moose last year.
“But a 6’ alligator? In Nampa? This was a first,†police said in the tweet, adding the hashtag #NampaGator and an alligator emoji.
After arriving at the man’s house and finding just what he told them they would, Marek said she and her partners were “a little baffled as to what to do or how to catch it” and called Idaho Fish & Game for help with the amphibious reptile that’s common in Florida and other states across the southeastern U.S. but not the Intermountain West.
“We just assisted with taping his mouth so there wouldn’t be any incidental snaps,” Marek said.
The alligator, an escaped pet, was soon reunited with its owner, who had lost track of the animal while cleaning its cage, Marek said. Idaho residents are allowed to own exotic pets such as alligators with special permits.
Still, Marek never expected to come face-to-face with one of the large, scaly reptiles in the country’s spud capital. She called it “definitely the weirdest” experience of her career.
“I’ve never seen an alligator. One of the guys that was on the call with me has been here for almost 25 years and we both laughed last night, saying every day you see or learn something new,” she said. “This is definitely something we never thought we would see, and we probably never will again.”
