Baby gator pays visit to Miami Gardens gas station

Officers remove gator, return reptile to natural habitat

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – An alligator walked into a gas station in the middle of the night.

It could be the start of a bad joke, but it actually happened early Tuesday at a Miami Gardens gas station.

Miami Gardens police took to Twitter to share pictures of Officers Bryan Blanco and Victor Velez posing with the baby gator.

Officer Carlos Austin, a spokesman for the Miami Gardens Police Department, said the gator somehow wandered inside the Marathon gas station at the corner of Northwest 171st Street and Northwest 27th Avenue about 1 a.m.

Austin said the 911 dispatcher was in disbelief upon receiving the call.

"You have a what in where?" Austin said the dispatcher asked.

Police turned to Blanco and Velez, both skilled wildlife handlers, to remove the small reptile.

Upon the recommendation of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the gator was relocated back to its natural habitat.