A stormwater crew in Florida was using a robot to check out a storm drain for potential leaks or cracks when they saw two glowing eyes. At first, they believed it was a huge toad. Then the robot got closer.
To the crew’s amazement, the eyes belonged to a 5-foot alligator.
The encounter occurred in the City of Oviedo.
The City of Oviedo detailed its find in a Facebook post:
You’ve heard of Snakes on a Plane? How about Gator in a Pipe?
On May 5, a Stormwater crew was out at Lockwood Blvd near Riverside to investigate a series of potholes that have appeared in the roadway. The crew has a robot, which is a four-wheel robotic camera that can go into the pipes and investigate any anomalies under the roadway. They usually bring the robot out to inspect when there are potential roadway defects to see if any pipes have leaks, cracks, defects, etc.. underground.
On Friday’s inspection, as you’ll see in the video, they came across a five-foot alligator! At first, they thought it was a toad and in the video, you see two little glowing eyes until you get closer – but when it turned around, they saw the long tail of the alligator and followed it through the pipes! You can see in the video they got about 340 feet in before the robot got stuck on a little indentation and the alligator meandered off.
Just another reason not to go wandering down into the Stormwater pipes! Thank goodness our crews have a robot.
So the video begged the question: How did the gator get out of the pipe?
The City of Oviedo supplied an answer on Facebook: “Through the storm water ponds.”
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