Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, received a strange call early on Monday. The person on the phone, a motel guest in the county’s Alexandria area, wanted to report a surprise visitor: an alligator loitering on a walkway near their room.

Body-camera footage released by the department on social media shows an officer approaching the Budget Host Alexandria motel on Richmond Highway shortly after midnight – and there on the pavement was the big reptile.

“Damn, that is an alligator,” the officer can be heard saying as he shined his flashlight on the 2m-long beast. Animal control officers were summoned to help contain the gator.

The owner had stopped for the night at the motel while transporting the alligator from New York to a North Carolina zoo, police said. Apparently, the gator somehow got out of its room. Although Virginia law bars the possession of certain non-native exotic animals, including bears, wolves, alligators and crocodiles, police said, no charges were filed. They said the owner and the gator were “safely escorted” out of the county.

When police arrived at the motel, someone was walking a dog nearby.

“I would bring your dog inside,” an officer warned. “There’s an alligator over here.”

“I know,” replied the dog walker. “I wanted to see it.”