Mississippi Woman Finds 7-Foot Alligator In A Storm Drain While Looking For Her Cat

A Mississippi woman and her step-daughter received a surprise on Monday while in search for her family's pet cat.

Brooque Snow told WLOX that she had never seen an alligator in person until she discovered the 7-foot reptile resting in a storm drain in her Pascagoula, Mississippi neighborhood.

"We looked inside and there was an alligator. At first, were like wait a minute, so we took a second glance... then I took out my phone. took a picture and I told the neighbors," Snow said.

Snow and her step-daughter were out searching for the family's missing cat when she thought to check the storm drain.

Local police determined that the gator was more than 4 feet long, prompting a call to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Wranglers were able to remove the alligator from the sewer and will soon release it into a marsh located nearby.

News about the trapped gator gained attention after the City of Pascagoula posted photos on their Facebook page, thanking animal control officers for removing the animal.

Pascagoula Police Capt. Doug Adams told WLOX that Snow made the right decision in calling the police about the alligator.

"You don't want to feed the gators even if they're in your yard, you don't want to try to trap them yourself," Adams said.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, alligators are responsible for one death per year in the United States. However, Florida alone averages 10 alligator bites per year.

Alligator attacks made headlines in 2018 when a South Carolina woman was killed while walking her dog, a Florida woman was injured when a gator attacked her during a swim, and a Florida man sustained serious injury when attacked at his retirement community.