Live alligators are banned from boarding airplanes, a fact that almost became relevant at Chicago O'Hare International airport on Friday, when an alligator was found slithering around the terminal, according to CNN.
A passenger alerted Tineka Walker, a security guard on patrol in Terminal three, that there was a suspicious object underneath the escalator.
"I looked, I said, 'what?'" Walker told WBBM-TV, an affiliate of CNN.
She radioed for help, and Anthony Oliver, the Chicago police officer, she reached, thought it was a joke at first.
"Figured somebody was messing with us," Oliver told WBBM.
The alligator was only approximately 18 inches long, and an airport employee was able to trap it with a trashcan and then scoop it up with a dustpan and broom. It was then picked up by animal control, who brought it to the Chicago Herpetological Society.
"What if a little kid grabbed this, thinking it was a toy?" Bob Bavirsha, a reptile rescuer with the Herpetological Society, said. "That could do a nasty job."
There was a posting on Twitter that led authorities to find out how the alligator ended up in the airport in the first place, when someone posted a photograph of a man holding what looked to be the same alligator on the Blue Line train to O'Hare. He has a distinguishable tattoo that could assist authorities in identifying him.
"The patterns on an alligator are as unique as your fingerprints," Bavirsha said. "We can actually match this band right here with that band right there."
The alligator will eventually be brought to a reptile park after receiving treatment for stunted growth resulting from being improperly fed.
"They probably realized they couldn't take it through checkpoint, and just let him go, but oh my God!" Walker said.
Luckily, no injuries resulted from the alligator's adventures in the airport.
Coverage of the alligator in the airport.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
