CTA Security personnel have secured images of the person last seen with the abandoned alligator found and recovered at O’Hare International Airport earlier this month.
Working with information from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and an image posted to a social media website that showed the reptile on a CTA Blue Line train, CTA Security personnel began their investigation and determined how the alligator got to the airport.
Using the agency’s extensive rail system camera network, which consists of more than 3,600 cameras, CTA Security personnel captured images of a woman who boarded a northbound Blue Line train at the Pulaski station at approximately 1:17AM on Friday, November 1 with an alligator in hand. Interior rail car cameras showed the woman holding the alligator in her hands and showing it to other passengers during her trip.
At approximately 2:17AM, the same woman is seen exiting the train with the alligator at the O’Hare Blue Line terminal. By 2:44AM, she is seen once again near the turnstiles of the O’Hare rail station, this time without the reptile in view.
Anyone with information to help identify the woman should contact CTA’s Customer Service 1-888-YOUR-CTA (1-888-968-7282) or [email protected].
Those responsible for this act can face a misdemeanor charge of cruel treatment of an animal or face a fine $300 to $1,000 for cruelty to animals for abandoning the animal in a public place.
CTA’s surveillance camera network not only assists police in the investigation of crimes committed on CTA properties, but also crimes committed near CTA properties against other people, properties and even animals.
In 2012, CTA cameras assisted police in the arrest of at least 154 individuals for crimes committed either on or off CTA property; so far in 2013, cameras have aided in the arrest of at least 140 individuals.
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