Meanwhile In Florida: Woman Pulls Foot-Long Alligator From Her Yoga Pants During Traffic Stop

Published on October 19, 2019

Meanwhile in Florida…apparently you can fit an alligator into yoga pants.

Earlier this summer, a Florida woman pulled an alligator out of her yoga pants during a traffic stop. Say what??

Deputies pulled over a pickup truck she was driving around 3:15 a.m.—that says it all right there. Authorities say they saw her drive past a stop sign on Oil Well Road and turn onto Tamiami Trail without stopping, according to an incident report from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman, 25, was accompanied by a 22-year-old man, who told deputies that she and him were coming from the underpass of Oil Well Road, where they were trying to collect frogs and snakes. Well, they were definitely collecting more than that…and talk about the strangest hobby to engage in at the strangest time of morning.

The deputy gave the driver of the pickup truck a warning for the stop sign violation and asked to see what wildlife they collected to make sure they did not have anything they weren’t supposed to have, as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has strict legal conservation laws in place to protect endangered species.

The driver opened the bags near him, which contained his clothes and some personal items. The female passenger then opened the backpack at her feet, revealing a 42 small three-striped mud turtles and one softshell turtle.

When the deputies asked her if she had anything else they needed to know about, she pulled a FOOT-LONG ALLIGATOR out of her yoga pants and placed it in the truck bed.

Come again?!?!

At this point, deputies called the FWC around 3:50 a.m., and arrived at the scene to continue its investigation. According to the FWC, the two turtle species and the American alligator are native to Florida, but are regulated.

As a result, the driver and passenger were both cited for having them and violating bag limits for the reptiles. Thankfully, the reptiles were seized and released back into the wild.

Back in August, the FWC raided and busted the largest turtle trafficking ring in the state’s history, with over 4,000 trafficked turtles with a black-market value of $200,000.

Andrew "Drew" Rossow is a former contract editor at Grit Daily.

Read more

More GD News