loracs | A First for These Old Eyes

As I was driving home from work today, I saw something I have never seen before outside of a cartoon. On a street lined with apartment buildings, only 5 blocks from the main street in downtown Oakland, California I watched a man walk a crocodile on a leash. The croc was in a high walk position, just grooving on the 80 degree weather, taking in the sights. Can you housebreak a reptile? Did the owner carry a "poop scoop" bag? They we're headed in the direction of a McDonald's only a 1/2 block away; perhaps they were heading out for an early dinner. Is is even legal to keep a croc this size as a pet?

Seriously, if this guy was walking the croc in his neighborhood, then he had to live in an apartment or condo because he was maybe 15 blocks away from the nearest single family house. This was not a tiny little lizard either; I estimate 3 to 4 feet long. I even looked around for the tell-tale white trailers of a movie shoot. Downtown Oakland and around Lake Merritt have been used a fair amount for location shots. We had an elephant in the lake years ago for a scene in a movie (I think it was "Made in America" with Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson.) The crocodile was only a couple of blocks from the lake, so maybe he was an "actor" on a "walkie" during a break. But no, there was nothing to point in this direction, so I'm left with a man and his pet just out for a walk.

File this under weird, but true.