New York couple busted for possession of guns, alligator

New York police discovered a 3.5-foot alligator during a search of a Brooklyn couple's home Monday.

Police in New York arrested a man and woman for allegedly stashing illegal handguns, drugs and an alligator in their Brooklyn home, authorities said.

Michael Volpe, 32, and Alisa Volpe, 25, were taken into custody Monday and charged with criminal possession of a weapon, including two handguns and a shotgun.

They were also charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and harboring an alligator, which is prohibited in New York.

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Police discovered the 3.5-foot reptile while they executed a search warrant at about 5:30 a.m., the New York Daily News reported.

Other items found were a pair of brass knuckles and a stash of pills and marijuana.

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Michael Volpe has had four prior arrests, including a weapons-possession charge, police said.

Information on attorneys wasn't immediately available.

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Jump to discussion page: 1 2

Must have come up from the sewer...

  • 8 votes
Reply#1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 9:47 AM EDT

...through their toilet... rats and snqakes do it all the time, so watch out when you are reading books while sitting on the john...

  • 3 votes
#1.1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 10:54 AM EDT

another reason to do-do while standing...

  • 6 votes
#1.2 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:05 AM EDT

Who came up from the sewer?

  • 3 votes
#1.3 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 12:28 PM EDT

Hey Max, once in a great while you hear about squirrels coming up through the plumbing, too.

  • 1 vote
#1.4 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 12:33 PM EDT

My question... Why, if

Michael Volpe has had four prior arrests, including a weapons-possession charge

is this person still walking the streets?!?!?

  • 9 votes
#1.5 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 12:37 PM EDT

@Bubbacat - squirrels coming up through the plumbing. After "nuts"?

  • 9 votes
#1.6 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 2:58 PM EDT

They were harboring a gator. It must have been on the run from down in the South land somewhere.

  • 2 votes
#1.7 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 3:42 PM EDT

I dont think the couple is from New York city.

Alligator and Guns could only mean one thing; Rednecks from the deep south.....

I am quite sure if the feds keep searchin, they'll find a horse in the basement, watching TV.

  • 2 votes
#1.8 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 4:30 PM EDT

I had a chipmunk in my toilet. It climbed down the vent pipe on the roof. I guess it couldn't get back out so it must have seen the light in the bathroom through the trap in the toilet and came out that way. Luckily the seat was down so it didn't run free in the house. I used a towel to grab it and let it go outside. It was really freaky when i saw something swimming around like crazy in my toilet

  • 1 vote
#1.9 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 4:31 PM EDT

Back in the early 60's people came to Kansas with baby alligators and sold them on the streets as pets for $1 each. You would get an alligator and a shoebox to carry him home in. The neighbors had one and let it go down at the river. Must have been a male, never heard of any being found later.

    #1.10 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:50 PM EDT
    Reply

    Yeah, and then somehow they got a hold of an alligator...

    • 6 votes
    Reply#2 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 10:03 AM EDT

    maybe he wanted a alligator roach clip for his weed...

    • 2 votes
    #2.1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:11 AM EDT

    The charges increase from a misdemeanor to a felony if the alligator was loaded.

    • 10 votes
    #2.2 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:28 AM EDT

    Why New York? Could have all these things down in Florida, especially the alligator.

    • 1 vote
    #2.3 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 2:36 PM EDT
    Reply

    At 3.5' that's an overgrown gecko.

    • 5 votes
    Reply#3 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 10:11 AM EDT

    It's so easy even a cave man can do it....ooh oops my bad, that was geico.

    • 2 votes
    #3.1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 2:39 PM EDT
    Reply

    Just what were they planning to do with an alligator? This could have been part of a cheesy B-rated gangster movie if the alligator were just a little bigger. Morons.

    • 2 votes
    Reply#4 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 10:16 AM EDT

    Possesion of an alligator????? Well lock them up and throw-away the key!!!!! Poor little gator was being being well fed, and living the good life when he should've been in a swamp fending for himself.

    • 5 votes
    Reply#5 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 10:23 AM EDT

    Not the strangest thing I've read today!

    • 3 votes
    Reply#6 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 10:28 AM EDT

    what is the strangest thing you've read today...

    • 1 vote
    #6.1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:14 AM EDT

    The 70 year old that was eaten by his hogs was a stranger story than this. (Mostly the part about the coroner trying to decide the cause of death...) hello?

    • 11 votes
    #6.2 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:17 AM EDT

    Annie-322924

    The 70 year old that was eaten by his hogs was a stranger story than this. (Mostly the part about the coroner trying to decide the cause of death...) hello?

    He could have had a heart attack, in which case the hogs were just taking care of the funeral arrangements.

    • 4 votes
    #6.3 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:30 AM EDT

    Bring the gator to Floriduh and release him/her in the Everglades. Bring along the couple who had the gator, and tie them both up, and then throw them from an airboat into a canal. Let them see what the gators natural habitat is like.

    • 2 votes
    #6.4 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 12:23 PM EDT
    Reply

    The alligator deserves to be free in his natural habitat, if possible. I hope that will be the case now that he's been rescued from that bathtub.

    • 3 votes
    Reply#7 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 10:38 AM EDT

    Come'on down to Florida, we have litttle baby gators like that everywhere! We prefer to refer to them as "Tourist Eliminators"! Can I interest you in a small 20' Anaconda or Python, they make really nice pets and don't worry, they're legal in New York!

    Chuck-Great comeback!!

    • 4 votes
    Reply#8 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 10:53 AM EDT

    @FlaNative55;

    You made me laugh. My first two years in college was in North Florida on a track and cross-country scholarship back in the 70's. Lake City had it's gators hanging out around the places of water and we were always on the look-out for them when we were in long distance training. Thanks for reviving some long forgotten memories.

    • 1 vote
    #8.1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 1:48 PM EDT

    Gators are one thing, but all the Noobs down here who get tired of their "exotic pets" and then decide to toss them out the door to fend for themselves, are a huge problem. I shouldn't have to be on the look out for panthers, boas and YAKS! ;-)

    • 2 votes
    #8.2 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 3:11 PM EDT

    hahahah Fla...I live in MA near Cape Cod and my view has always been, If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them, but the alligator sounds like a better solution.

    • 2 votes
    #8.3 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 3:23 PM EDT
    Reply

    That is NOT a 3.5' alligator, it looks like eletrical tape on its mouth and it's in a plastic bin, msn for the fail again

    • 2 votes
    Reply#9 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 10:57 AM EDT

    So it's in a plastic bin, it's reported to be 3.5', and it has tape on the mouth at the present, but it will come off. What's the fail by MSN.

    • 2 votes
    #9.1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:43 AM EDT

    its got mutant powers that make it appear smaller than it is after finding some green "Ooze" in the sewers left by some turtles and a rat.

      #9.2 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 4:24 PM EDT
      Reply

      it's not the size of the gator...it's the size of the story in the gator...msn hype...

        Reply#10 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:02 AM EDT

        Total failure of yet another person with "prior arrests" to obey the rules. Go figure.

        • 6 votes
        Reply#11 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:14 AM EDT

        Maybe someone with "the power" will sign an executive order excusing them of this offense...

        • 2 votes
        #11.1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 12:58 PM EDT

        "Repeat offenders, urh, clients is good for business.", says the New York state penitentiary warden.

        • 3 votes
        #11.2 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 2:43 PM EDT
        Reply

        Another trash with guns. Four prior arrests, including a weapons-possession charge....... throw the book at this clown!!!!

        • 5 votes
        Reply#12 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:22 AM EDT

        Eh, books don't hurt, let's throw him in an alligator pit.

        • 1 vote
        #12.1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 2:46 PM EDT
        Reply

        Idiots

        • 4 votes
        Reply#13 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:36 AM EDT

        Had this happen in our municipality--the gator, not the guns.

        I used to dispatch on the graveyard shift for Animal Control in my municipality and volunteered for the shelter. we got a call one night from the police--some guy got himself shot in a drug deal, and when the cops went to his house they found a 5 foot alligator living in green water in a clawfoot tub in the guy's basement, no other family.

        In our municipality no reptile five feet or larger is permitted unless you're a licensed zoo. The first AEO we sent out there was confronted (and bitten) by the gator and went to the hospital, so we had to pull one officer who was off for the night and two who were working other districts to go get this alligator out of the tub, drain the tub, bring it and the gator back to the shelter and set the tub up in our wildlife room. The zoo wouldn't take it--they can't, if you have no idea where it came from, whether it has been health checked what it ate, etc. so we had to call a wildlife rescue--and then trap live rats around the shelter to keep it fed until the rescue people got here.

        It was...interesting.

        • 3 votes
        Reply#14 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 11:42 AM EDT

        So, dead rats weren't good enough for him? That's what comes from living the easy life

          #14.1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 4:22 PM EDT
          Reply

          Maybe the tape comes off at night & the gator serves as some sort watchanimal. Imagine someone breaking in, shing a flashlight around, & comes across a pair of glittering eyes, accompanied by a mouthful of sharp teeth.....

          Maybe they tied the brass knuckles to the gators tail at night; pain from both ends.

          • 2 votes
          Reply#15 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 12:29 PM EDT

          4 prior arrests and what will he get this time? This guy should give up on crime as he sucks at it.

          • 4 votes
          Reply#16 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 12:35 PM EDT

          Alligator? Personally, my dogs alert me if someone is skulking around. (Alligators don't bark very loud)

          • 6 votes
          Reply#17 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 12:41 PM EDT

          Nah, they were stoned and thought the guy said GATO... LOL

          • 4 votes
          Reply#18 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 12:45 PM EDT

          But, but, but... if alligators are outlawed, only outlaws will have alligators!

          • 9 votes
          Reply#19 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 1:29 PM EDT

          Uh, as facetious as your comment is, this story proves your statement true.

          • 2 votes
          #19.1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 2:49 PM EDT

          @Howie. . .bwaaaaaaaaaa!

          • 1 vote
          #19.2 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 3:14 PM EDT
          Reply

          I can understand the guns, but an alligator? What happen to the American way, and the pitbull?

          • 3 votes
          Reply#20 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 1:42 PM EDT

          Were they going for a record, How many laws can be broken at the same time?

          • 4 votes
          Reply#21 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 2:27 PM EDT

          Remeber this: the past "weapons" charge may have started as a result of the good city of new yorkk outlawing guns. (in other words in direct violation of the 2nd ammendment) so we made a criminal out of a person for providing protection for himself and family. a poor deal all in all

          • 1 vote
          Reply#22 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 2:48 PM EDT

          the guy was clearly a criminal not just because of the guns

            #22.1 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 4:31 PM EDT
            Reply

            We need to close the alligator loophole...Nanny Bloomberg?

            • 2 votes
            Reply#23 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 2:51 PM EDT

            Maybe the guy was a Miami Vice fanatic and loved to emulate Sonny Crockett?

            • 1 vote
            Reply#24 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 2:54 PM EDT

            Do you have any idea how long it takes to grow a good set of shoes??? Damn, there went the matching wallet and belt, too.

            • 4 votes
            Reply#25 - Tue Oct 2, 2012 2:55 PM EDT
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