Alligator the Size of Cocker Spaniel Found in Hemet Home

An alligator native to North America was found in "very healthy" condition Monday night in a house in Hemet.

The gator was over four feet long and weighed in around 50 pounds when it was pulled from a home in the 4100 block of Sunset Lane.

When NBCLA arrived at the scene we found U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officers inside the home conducting some sort of investigation.  The officers on seen declined to tell us what they were looking into.

The DOJ officers found the unnamed alligator while inside the home and summoned the Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary based in Phelan to retrieve the beast.

The sanctuary worker, Joel Almquist, told NBCLA "yeah it could bite somebody but most likely wouldn't survive long.  It wasn't nasty, it was very well mannered." 

Almquist said he has collected about 70 alligators in the past four years and placed them all at Forever Wild.  "The (alligators)do not make good pet, eventually they are going to end up at my place," the gator expert told us.

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