Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe PHILADELPHIA, June 10 (UPI) -- Philadelphia police were stunned to see a 3.5 foot alligator sitting on the lap of its owner as she rode in a car down a city street. The unlikely family pet was confiscated this week when authorities saw him with his head sticking out the car window, enjoying the winds of the open road, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Advertisement There's a law against wild animals in the city limits, so Petey, was taken away from his owner, Danya Johnson, 29, and lodged with the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Association. Johnson was also ticketed for possessing the illegal pet. Johnson "was very distraught when the alligator was taken away from her," said Police Inspector William Colarulo, who told the Inquirer he believed she had raised the alligator from its infancy. During their early years, alligators grow at a rate of about a foot per year. Males reach about 12 feet long and weigh about 550 pounds. Alligators live about 55 years.
