A lot of car buyers worry about encountering snakes at their local dealership—the slithery kind in polo shirts that try to push the TruCoat. On Thursday, a Florida car buyer came across a different kind of reptile, in the form of a six-foot long, 170 pound alligator.
According to Tampa Bay’s News Chanel 8, dealership employees were notified by a customer who came onto the lot to do some shopping who spotted the gator near some pre-owned vehicles. Here’s employee Dorian Sinclair:
“The customer pass by and say, ‘Hey, you guys have a gator,’” Sinclair said as he recalled the conversation. “You guys have a gator in your lot.”
The dealership immediately contacted trapper Mark Moniz to wrangle up the reptile. Moniz came to the dealership with his standard set of gator trappin’ tools—poll, rope, electrical tape, the usual stuff—to close the gator’s mouth shut.
Since it is alligator mating season in Florida, the animals sometimes end up looking for hookups in strange places—though experts say unprovoked attacks on humans are rare, and about seven people a year are bitten by alligators.
Moniz gave some tips on what to do if you spot one: “Just pay attention to him and what he’s doing, and you’ll have no issues with him.”
The same could be said of haggling with a car dealer.