Student Busted After Taking His 5 Pet Gators Into a Taxi
A Chinese college student living in Maine reportedly took his five baby gators on a taxicab ride this week.
Yifan Sun, 20, was allegedly found in possession of the reptiles—which are illegal in the state—while attempting to transport them in a taxicab to an Augusta bus station.
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While en route to the station, cab driver Frank Folsom told the Kennebec Journal that someone at a store where they stopped may have spotted the gators and called authorities.
Augusta PD beat the cab at the bus station, where they said they intercepted Sun and informed him his pets were illegal.
According to the Kennebec Journal, police say Sun first told them in poor English that he was taking a bus to another town to show the gators to a friend.
Police reportedly said Sun later told them he was getting a friend who works at UPS to help him ship the gators to a collector in Texas in exchange for another reptile known as a Tegu lizard.
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Sun was issued a summons by the Maine game wardens for possessing the alligators, a restricted species in Maine, without a permit.
Game wardens seized the alligators, according to a press release which noted that animals like gators, crocodiles and venomous snakes are restricted from being kept in Maine as pets to protect public safety and the fragile ecosystem.
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