DETROIT – A Detroit woman said her son died and she buried him over the weekend. Then she found a large alligator in his bedroom.
Mark Rosenthal, of Animal Magic, said the woman called him on Tuesday morning, Nov. 18, 2025.
“An elderly woman called in this morning,” Rosenthal said. “Her son passed away last week. She buried him Saturday and said he had a big alligator in his bedroom.”
Rosenthal went to the Detroit home and found an alligator inside a six-foot aquarium. He said the alligator is about five and a half or six feet long.
“It had no room to move,” Rosenthal said. “No water, no heat, no light. I don’t know how it’s in this good of shape. It was in horrible conditions.”
Rosenthal even gave his new friend a fitting name: “Navi-gator,” after getting lost in Detroit following the rescue.
He took the alligator to the animal sanctuary and asked people to think twice before getting illegal or dangerous pets.
Soon, the gator will be a Florida resident when it relocates to a multi-million dollar sanctuary in two weeks.
Rosenthal said his team gets more calls about alligators than all other animals combined in Michigan, despite them being illegal and dangerous.