A Florida woman been sentenced to probation in a case that began when she pulled an alligator out of her pants during a traffic stop.
Ariel Michelle Marchan-Le Quire, 26, pleaded no contest to charges of illegally possessing wildlife and was sentenced to 24 months of probation. She was arrested after a pickup truck in which she was a passenger ran a stop sign.
The driver of the truck told the officer they were collecting snakes and frogs underneath a nearby bridge and consented to a search of the truck.
The officer found 41 three-stripe turtles and a soft-shelled turtle in a “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” backpack.
When the officer asked Marchan-Le Quire if she was hiding anything else, she reached down into her yoga pants and pulled out a foot-long alligator.
She was arrested and charged with one count of taking or possessing an American alligator, one count of taking or possessing more than one turtle per day, one count of transporting more than one turtle or turtle egg and one count of taking or possessing a softshell turtle.
