Deputies get call of the wild, stop alligator, kangaroo in Lancaster

Antelope Valley residents complain of dogs dumped in their desert towns, but it was a sighting of a more exotic animal that raised eyebrows this week.

Deputies at the L.A. County sheriff’s Lancaster station received a report Tuesday of two women, one holding a 4-foot-long alligator, who were standing outside a van parked near the corner of 50th Street West and Avenue K.

“The caller feared the female was about to abandon the beast in the desert,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

The women packed the reptile back into the van and drove off, officials said. The caller trailed the vehicle until deputies stopped the vehicle several miles away.

The women confessed they had the alligator — along with a kangaroo.

It seems the animals were part of a “Zoo to You” program in Paso Robles, and had been visiting students at Quartz Hill Elementary School, the Sheriff’s Department said. The group was on their way back to Paso Robles when the alligator “soiled its cage,” officials said, prompting the driver to pull over for a cleanup.

“After a quick photo op, the deputies bid the ladies farewell,” the department statement said, “saying, ‘See you later, alligator.’ ”

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kate.mather@latimes.com