A freshwater crocodile discovered in the backyard of a home on the New South Wales Central Coast has been captured.
Ely Curry-Babushkin found the metre-long crocodile jammed against a fence in his dad's backyard at Umina on Sunday.
He said he was shocked by the discovery.
"I thought it was a toy to begin with — I didn't think it was actually alive," he said.
"[Dad] stuck his head over the fence and went, 'Oh damn, that is an actual crocodile in my backyard. What is that doing here?'"
The 30-year-old acted quickly, moving the crocodile into a container and calling the local reptile park.
"I got my phone because no one [was] going to believe me when I tell this story," he said.
"I was expecting [the crocodile] to be a lot heavier than she was but that's what I did — one hand on the back of the neck and another on the tail, and then up she came."
Croc likely an escaped or dumped pet
Australian Reptile Park operations manager and crocodile keeper Billy Collett said calls were sometimes fielded from people who thought they had "crocs in their yard", but they were "usually water dragons or blue-tongues".
But this was the real thing.
"Freshies aren't regarded as being extremely dangerous but they can give you a really nasty bite," Mr Collett said.
"I just couldn't believe my eyes — I'm looking at a crocodile here on the Central Coast in someone's backyard!"
According to Mr Collett, the reptile "put up a bit of a fight" during her capture before being taken to the reptile park and placed in her own "appropriate enclosure".
"She was in the water, swimming around. She went up to her basking area to get a bit of heat … [as] she was quite cold," he said.
It is believed the crocodile, aged between 8 and 10, was most likely being kept as a pet and either escaped or was dumped.
Mr Curry-Babushkin said he could not believe someone would have a crocodile as a pet.
"She was very placid when I was handling her but at the same time, they're cold-blooded killers," he said.
"If it was a pet she could turn around and think 'I've had enough of you' and eat you!"
Croc's future unclear
There are strict licensing conditions around keeping such animals.
The incident has been reported to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
"[In NSW] the only way you can have a croc is if you've got an exhibitor's licence or you're a wildlife park, like us," Mr Collett said.
"The penalties can be pretty severe. They can be thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars."
For the moment the reptile's future is unclear.
The Australian Reptile Park said it would like to keep it for its popular tourist attraction at Somersby but the final decision will be made by National Parks which "might want to move it back up to somewhere in the tropics at another facility".
The freshwater crocodile will undergo a full veterinary check on Monday.
