Maulana Mushtaq Sulaimani awoke yesterday morning to find a six-foot-long caiman in his front yard.

The caiman likely crawled out of the flood-swollen Cipero River, looking for a safe place to survive the torrent.

Said Sulaimani, ’At first I thought it was part of the flower garden in my lawn, but then I saw it moving. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. It was a caiman.

’I went to the Wild Life Division, but it was closed so I waited for a team to come and remove it’.

Sulaimani said he spotted the reptile around 6 a.m. But it was not until an hour later that the team of game wardens, including workers from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Forestry Division, arrived to remove it. ’It was really scary. My family had to lock themselves indoors because we were afraid of it,’ he said.

Sulaimani lives at Union Hall in Golconda, near San Fernando.

Game warden Steve Seepersad said the fully grown male caiman may have crawled out of the flood-swollen river and entered the family’s home through the front gate.

’Because we cannot seem to find any other entry. The caiman had to come through the front gate,’ he said.

Seepersad said the reptile will be released into the wild.

’We would take it to a safe place and release it. With the kind of weather we are having these days, we expect to find many more like these,’ he said.