Local weather was more South Florida than South Jersey on Sunday, and so was an Atlantic County fisherman's catch: An alligator.
According to the Press of Atlantic City, Jesse E. Deeney arrived at a Hamilton Township lake at about 6 a.m. and soon noticed "a little head" poking out of the water.
"He really wasn't afraid of me at all," said Deeney, 30, of Egg Harbor City, who landed the reptile and summoned police.
The fisherman and the officers posed for photos with the muzzled 'gator before it was removed, unharmed, by the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection.
Although alligators are rarely found north of North Carolina, the DEP has become quite adept at handling them in recent years. In 2010 a four-footer was spotted walking across a Passaic County schoolyard; in 2009 another four-footer some dubbed "Mr. Slithers" turned up in a city pond in Trenton; four smaller 'gators were found living in a special pool in a posh Monmouth County home that same year; and in 2008 two very young specimens were seized from an aquarium in a Vineland home.
In New Jersey, it is illegal to possess an alligator -- although the ones sewn onto the front of shirts are a (most welcome) exception. Besides, those little green guys are crocs. Not gators.