Camden Police Department (CPD) officers assisted the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) with removing an alligator from a Camden motel room on Monday, Sept. 9.

Officers got a tip that there was a live alligator in tone of the rooms at the Mona Lisa Motel on West DeKalb Street. CPD Sgt. Morales and Cpl. Jared Smith entered the room and told the occupants of the room why they were there, according to an incident report.

The room’s occupant, Christopher Dashai Cook, of Camden, told officers that he did have an alligator in the room living in a blue plastic container with holes in the lid. According to the report, the alligator was about 3 feet in length. Cook told officers he found the alligator behind a Camden nail salon and had been keeping in motel room for two months.

Morales and Smith called a DNR officer to the motel. That officer removed the alligator for relocation and issued Cook a courtesy summons.