Woman discovers 3-foot alligator on the front steps of her Kentucky home

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE/Gray News) - A Louisville woman said she went to her porch Tuesday morning and found a three-foot alligator on her steps.

It’s a story you usually hear from Florida or Alabama, not from Kentucky.

The homeowner said she didn’t know how the gator got in her yard, only that she just wanted it gone.

Jamesetta Townsend said she never thought she would come face to face with one in Louisville.

Townsend said she was shocked and nervous when she had an unexpected visitor Tuesday at around 10 a.m.

She said she went to her front door to turn off the porch lights, like every other day, and noticed she had a visitor scaling her steps.

“I looked down, and I saw it laying there. And I hollered for my husband to come and look,” Townsend said. “So he came and looked, and he said, ‘Well, what is it?’ So I went and got my son Terrence, and he came out to look and he said, ‘Mom, that’s an alligator.’”

What sounds like a punchline to a Florida man story became reality for Townsend.

She and her husband shared pictures of the swamp beast, and it looked to be a young gator. However, the size didn’t matter to Townsend.

“It was big enough for me to stay away from it, I’ll put it that way,” Townsend said.

She said her son sprayed the gator with a hose, to keep it cool until Kentucky Fish and Wildlife came to get it.

How did it get into her yard in the first place?

Fish and Wildlife crews knocked on doors near River Park Drive searching for the reptile’s owner but couldn’t find any leads.

In a statement, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife said that they occasionally get reports of gators and caimans in the state, and there’s a reason laws prohibit exotic and inherently dangerous animals.

They said alligators don’t make good pets, and if released they can become a danger to others.

“Two reasons are potential transmission of diseases and introduction of species that can harm Kentucky’s native wildlife, people, pets or livestock. Alligators don’t make good pets, as even a smaller one can injure a person. When an alligator grows beyond a person’s capacity to care for it, oftentimes it gets released into the wild, and then it becomes a potential danger to others,” the state agency said in a statement.

Townsend said she believes the gator was someone’s pet, but still had a message for the little guy’s mother.

“You know, keep your children at home! That’s all I got to say,” Townsend said.

Townsend said Kentucky Fish and Wildlife took the alligator away to run some tests and try to find it a new home outside of her front yard.

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