MIAMI – What did a South Florida woman do when she lifted the lid on her toilet and found an iguana inside?
She closed it again and called 911.
Lt. Scott Mullin of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's Venom One unit told the Miami Herald it's the first time he's found an iguana in a toilet.
Mullin said when the call came in Tuesday night, he asked the dispatcher to make sure it was an iguana and not a snake.
Gisele Quintero told Local 10 News reporter Todd Tongen that her mother called her after finding the iguana.
"I opened the door, stuck my hand in. I took a picture with my phone and when I pulled it out, I noticed it wasn't a garden snake," she said. "It's something (that's) got legs and it's moving."
Quintero said she didn't know what to do, so she called 911.
"They kept asking, 'Is this an emergency?'" she said. "I'm like, 'Well, not really, but we'd like to get this removed.'"
Mullin said the grandmother, her daughter and grandchildren were waiting when he arrived at their home in West Kendall. Mullin said the lizard likely came up through the pipes.
"It's believed, because they're excellent swimmers and they can hold their breath for an extended period of time, that it probably wound up coming up from the plumbing system and wound up in the toilet," Lt. Felipe Lay said. "It's a very rare call for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue."
Mullin used gloves to lift the iguana from the bowl, put it in a box and drove it to a wildlife rescue center.
Quintero said she plans to check the toilets in her house each time she uses them from now on before sitting down.