‘Grinning’ creature lurking at wastewater plant discovered when worker spots its tail

Lurking in the muck at a Pennsylvania wastewater treatment plant was a “grinning” creature that didn’t belong.

Then a worker spotted the exotic critter’s tail, according to Lehigh Valley Live.

“Lo and behold, there it was, alive,” Lehigh County Authority communications manager Susan Sampson told the news outlet.

The worker had discovered an American alligator that somehow made it to the Kline’s Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, WTXF reported.

“It rode up the climber screen with other solids and survived the journey” when it was spotted on April 28, according to a Facebook post from Lehigh County Authority.

That journey was filled with other solids that are removed from the water, WNEP reported.

“What they found was a huge boulder of this horrible grease and fat and diapers and rags and everything that accumulates in this very special corkscrew unit and pulls that stuff out of the water, and this boulder of it came up and saw a tail sticking out of it,” wildlife expert Barbara Miller told WNEP after helping rescue the foot-long reptile.

While officials aren’t sure how the alligator ended up with the solids, it’s possible it may have been flushed down a toilet, according to The Morning Call.

Employees at the wastewater plant cleaned the sewage off the gator, then it was taken to Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation & Education Center, the news outlet reported. There, the alligator’s mouth was cleaned and it was given an antibiotic bath.

“The exterior, he’s in pretty decent shape,” Janine Tancredi, an executive director at the center told WNEP. “His eyes are still a little bit irritated. Still cleaning out his mouth, but he’s recovering well.”

After time in rehabilitation, the alligator will be taken to Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland, according to The Morning Call.

Lehigh County is about 60 miles northwest of downtown Philadelphia.

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