Honestly, When Isn't There An Alligator Loose In New Jersey?

There’s an alligator just casually strolling around New Jersey, holding what I imagine is a warm Bud Light in a beer koozie, trying to soak up the last few days of summer.

Philly.com reports that the gator, who comes in at three to four feet, was spotted hanging around Mullica township in South Jersey. Residents were advised to look after their small pets, for obvious reasons.

Nobody knows where the gator came from, especially since South Jersey isn’t exactly a hotbed for alligators. But weirdly enough this isn’t the first time an alligator was found chilling in the Garden State. Last year an alligator was found swimming in a Secaucus duck pond, and then an alligator was found in an Atlantic City motel pool that same year (it was there to be a video shoot.) A few years before, in 2015, an alligator was found in the Passaic River and a dead alligator was found in North Jersey earlier that year. Literally a 2-foot caiman alligator was just found hanging out in a pond in Old Bridge last week, and the NJ.com offered this interesting piece of information:

People frequently purchase alligators in other states and release them into rivers and lakes in New Jersey when they get too big for the aquarium in which they’re kept, Department of Environmental Protection Larry Hajna said. Alligators would be unlikely to survive the winter in New Jersey’s cold waters. Hajna noted it is illegal to own an alligator in New Jersey.

Oh. Okay. According to a 2015 story about ANOTHER alligator being found in a Long Branch home, owning an alligator in New Jersey could lead to a fine of $25,000.

Is New Jersey really that terrible of a state that you think it deserves your alligators? Keep those fuckers in Florida, where they belong, thanks!