‘I was just in shock.’ Kayaker finds 4-foot alligator loose in Lake Michigan, city says

A four-foot alligator might not be a big deal in some places, but none of those places are Lake Michigan on the advent of winter, reported The Detroit Free Press.

“I went closer to see if it was real,” David Castaneda, who’d been out fishing for salmon on his kayak when he spotted the swimming reptile, told The Chicago Tribune. “I was just in shock. I wasn’t sure if it was a real alligator or a toy.”

Castaneda called 911 and sent authorities a video of the reptile, usually found in more tropical climes, reported the Detroit Free Press. Waukegan, Illinois, animal control officers responded and retrieved the errant alligator.

“It is not every day someone reports an alligator in Lake Michigan and the report is true,” Waukegan authorities wrote in a Facebook post with a photo of the captured alligator.

Someone had taped the mouth of the alligator, known as a caiman, shut, said Rob Carmichael, the curator for the Wildlife Discovery Center in Lake Forest, where the reptile is being housed, according to The Chicago Tribune.

“I would say it would be lucky if it lived another couple weeks,” Carmichael said, according to the publication. “Lake Michigan is only getting colder and colder each week.”

Officials don’t know whether someone abandoned the alligator in the lake or not, reported MichiganLive.

In July, a homeowner in Allen Park, Michigan, discovered a small alligator in a back yard pond, reported MichiganLive.

“All she sees is it jump in the pond and she’s like, ‘what the heck was that’,” neighbor Blake Martin told the station. Police called in a pet shop owner to help capture the alligator.