PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — A traffic stop took a bizarre turn Monday morning when a Florida woman revealed she had a foot-long alligator in her yoga pants and dozens of turtles in her backpack, deputies said.
As the deputy issued a warning, the driver, 22-year-old Michael Clemons, said he had been out collecting snakes and frogs with his passenger, 25-year-old Ariel Machan-Le Quire, the Herald reported.
According to the Miami Herald, a Charlotte County sheriff's deputy made the unusual discovery about 3:30 a.m. after pulling over a blue pickup truck that drove past a stop sign in Punta Gorda, the incident report said.
After searching their bags for illegal wildlife, the deputy found "41 small turtles" in Machan-Le Quire's backpack, the Herald reported. She also had a softshell turtle, according to WBBH-TV.
When asked whether she had anything else, Machan-Le Quire "proceeded to pull an alligator out of her yoga pants (about one foot in length) and placed it into the bed of the truck," the incident report said.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission took over the investigation and cited the pair for having the reptiles and "violating bag limits," WBBH reported. Authorities also seized and released the animals.