"I Thought It Was An Alligator": Strange Creature Shocks Woman In Florida

A woman in Florida has posted a video of a creature that she saw "strutting across the road" in the area where she lives. The video of the Asian monitor lizard has gained significant attention on social media after it was posted on Facebook. It was captured by Renee Aland on May 20 in the city of North Port when she was driving home with her daughter. An Asian monitor lizard is native to southern and Southeast Asia, but not the US. It is considered to be the second-largest lizard species, after the Komodo dragon.

Ms Aland said she first thought it was an alligator.

"When we got closer, I looked, and I saw his tongue, a lizard tongue coming out, and I was like, 'Oh, crap, that's not a gator!'" she told Fox News.

When her daughter, Zoey Marzonie, asked if she should get closer to the lizard, Ms Aland told her to "stay in the car".

The girl told her mother about 7-foot-long pet lizard of Mrs Kipling from the Disney Channel show 'Jessie'.

"It was like this big lizard, and I've seen something like it before. Have you heard of the show 'Jessie' for Disney Channel? It was like that big lizard in 'Jessie'," the outlet quoted Marzonie as saying. "It was just strolling. It was huge, at least four, five feet. It was pretty crazy. I wanted to get out and get closer, I was like what is that? I wanted to see it but she said, 'No, stay in the car'."

Ms Aland called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and gave them the photographic proof.

The lizards typically grow to four to six feet and eat anything from snakes and insects, to birds, frogs, rodents and small birds, according to the Reptarium.