All hell broke loose in Granite Falls, Washington after the residents were warned there’s a 10-foot alligator on the loose in their town. This announcement caused some panic, but not for too long because it quickly turned out that the “alligator” was simply a large pet lizard.
The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office shared the news about an alligator sighting in the Granite Falls area on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Their post featured a blurry photo of an “alligator” and informed local residents that the reptile was last seen south of Ray Grade Road toward the Pilchuck River.
This post caused a lot of commotion on social media, with several reptile lovers suggesting the animal in the photo wasn’t an alligator at all. They correctly assumed that the reptile in question was actually a tegu, a reptile native to South America and a common household pet.
His owner Shanna Duncan confirmed that the “alligator” was just her white Argentine tegu named Tazz in a Facebook group called Granite Falls Community Connection. She asked the locals to simply contact animal control if they saw him, and he eventually made it home.
“The whole weekend felt like living in a movie. The entire town came to my family’s aid. I think people really needed a positive story to make them laugh. This was definitely it,” Duncan told Forbes via email.
Granite Falls Deputies are investigating the sighting of a 10’ alligator near the 9400 block of Ray Grade Rd. The reptile was last seen south of Ray Grade Rd toward the Pilchuck River.
— snocosheriff (@SnoCoSheriff) July 20, 2024
No further information at this time. pic.twitter.com/KJWBTF9geZ
