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There’s only a handful of states in America where you need to be prepared for possible encounters with an alligator, and Michigan is decidedly not one of them. However, employees at a motel in the town of Cheboygan managed to encounter one thanks to a guest who checked out without taking it with him.
Louisiana and Florida lead the way when it comes to the states with the highest population of alligators (an estimated 2 million and 1.3 million, respectively), and the southeastern region of the country has a monopoly on the cold-blooded animals that need a warmer climate to thrive.
Michigan does not check any of those boxes, so alligator sightings in The Wolverine State tend to make headlines—including the one that was discovered in a pond near a high school in 2019.
It took close to six years, but the Pine River Motel in Cheboygan has also managed to get in on the action thanks to what transpired last week.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the manager of the motel and his nephew went to clean a room last Friday after a guest who works as an animal handler who visits schools to educate students with the aid of his menagerie of exotic pets departed on Thursday.
The manager told the outlet his nephew took a peek under the bed and was greeted by a very unexpected surprise in the form of the three-foot-long alligator that was lurking there.
An alligator named Wally was left behind in a room at the Pine River Motel in Cheboygan.
Staff found him while they were cleaning the room after someone had already checked out. pic.twitter.com/f6j0eLyOcm
— UpNorthLive News (@upnorthlive) March 17, 2025
They quickly called the police as well as the unidentified guest who’d been staying there, who told them he thought the alligator—named Wally—had managed to escape the room after he was unable to find him prior to checking out and driving to Detroit.
The manager described Wally as a “real friendly alligator” and said the police officers who waited at the motel until his owner arrived got the chance to hold the animal he’s been looking after for around a decade.
City of Cheboygan
At least it all worked out in the end.