At Least Four People Swear They Own Melbourne’s Bizarre Runaway Crocodile

The laws of quantum mechanics state you can’t neatly categorise every entity as a  ‘particle’ or a ‘wave’, and that some infinitesimally small bits and pieces can exhibit both qualities at one time or another.

The same goes for the story of the random saltwater crocodile found roaming a suburban Melbourne street on Christmas Day, which has lead yours truly to two equally strong but diametrically opposed trains of thought:

Who the hell would choose to own a saltwater crocodile? Also, I definitely want to own a saltwater crocodile.

Apparently I am not the only person who’d like to possess one of those baby ancient killing machines, as The Australian reports four people have claimed to own the lil’ snapper.

Since being captured by handler Mark Pelley, there’s been a huge amount of speculation as to the provenance of the relatively petite reptile. The prevailing theory is that it was, legally or not, someone’s pet – hence the four claimants, who have asked Pelley to hand back the toothy boy.

In a remarkably sensible move considering how insane the whole saga is, Pelley has instead chosen to hand the croc to Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, so they can decide where it goes.

Anyone who has legitimate evidence that they own the croc has been advised to get in contact. Everyone else can watch the thing wriggle like a demon below:

A crocodile loose in suburban Melbourne has been captured in a snappy Christmas night mission, with no one knowing where it came from. #7News pic.twitter.com/2afBltpVcD

— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) December 26, 2017