Heavy rain in the Midwest caused an usual sight for Kansas residents Monday night -- an alligator in the middle of the road, WDAF reported.
"I honestly started laughing," said Natalie Cowan, who stopped her car in Basehor when she saw the reptile. "I was like, 'This has to be a joke. It's not real.'"
Sheriff’s deputies weren’t laughing, though. After all, gator sightings happen in Florida, and not in Kansas.
"The officer actually drew his gun," Cowan told WDAF. "He was like, 'If this thing starts running at me again, I'll have to put it down.'"
Video shows the 4-foot alligator leaping at a law enforcement officer.
Cowan, 20, saw the reptile while driving home Monday night. She told WDAF that she slowed down when a raccoon crossed the road in front of her, but she was unprepared when the alligator appeared.
"I continued to go forward and I see two more eyes," Cowan told the television station. "So I was like, 'It’s probably a family of raccoons.' Then I get closer, and I see a crocodile! Or an alligator! I see an alligator!"
After a 15-minute standoff, deputies learned the gator was a pet that had escaped from a neighbor's property. It returned home soon after the confrontation, WDAF reported.
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