Alligators In Brooklyn Apartment Among 13 Beasts Found By Authorities

A New York housing project was seized by animal control authorities, who found thirteen exotic animals. Among the bunch were two small alligators being kept in glass fish tanks, according to NYPD officials.

The Crown Heights apartment in the Weeksville Houses was undergoing an unrelated search on Friday when the beasts were discovered, reported CNN. To the police officers surprise, the tiny Brooklyn apartment was the home to two bearded dragons, two alligators, one gecko, one scorpion, a tarantula and six deadly snakes (a boa constrictor and five pythons).

After finding the reptilian inhabitants, the police officers contacted animal control to handle the issue, and the creatures were removed at by 1:30 p.m., according to DNA Info. The owner of the exotic pets wasn't arrested and isn't facing charges at this time, but is not permitted to house such animals.

"Animals that are vicious, threatening, bite people or that are otherwise prohibited by law are not permitted in NYCHA apartments or on NYCHA property," the city's housing authority told CNN. "Either one dog or one cat," and "reasonable quantities" caged birds, fish, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs or other small animals are permitted by the NYC organization, reported CNN.

"The exotic pets market is largely unregulated, especially when it comes to reptiles," Debbie Leahy, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States, told CNN. "And there are hundreds of instances in which these animals escape, or their owners let them go."

There are no reports of where the animals will be placed at this time.

Apparently the reptiles weren't the only beasts in the apartment. "They've got some big dogs," DNA Info claims Jeff Hayes, 43, a private contractor neighbor of the former reptile owner, said. "They've got some pit bulls up there. They need to do something," stated the neighbor, referring to animal control.

Other neighbors complained about the three large dogs, DNA Info reported, but none mentioned the alligators or other reptiles.

"There's urine and feces in the hallway and nine times out of ten, it was them," lumber yard worker, Klein Poe, 30, who lives in the building, told DNA Info.com. "In these types of apartments who would want three dogs?"

Poe lives below the alligators and pit bulls, and claims that the dogs were much more apparent than the other animals. ""I hear [the dogs] running back and forth over my head all the time. I hear it all night," said Poe, who has a 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.