Living in Fear No More... "We Got It!" Caught After 11 Days

A roughly 1-meter-long lizard that had been roaming around walking trails in the Gwanggyo New Town area of Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, and alarming local residents, has been captured after 11 days of searching.

Suwon City and fire authorities announced that they successfully caught the lizard near the stream close to Hongjae Library in Gwanggyo Wellbeing Town at around 11:30 a.m. today (August 22).

This comes 11 days after the first media reports emerged on August 11 that a large lizard had been spotted on an apartment walking trail.

According to authorities, a worker performing stream weeding work first spotted the lizard hiding in the bushes and reported it to the fire department. Firefighters dispatched to the scene waited nearby with landing nets, rustled the bushes to lure the lizard out, and safely captured it.

No one was injured during the capture, and no visible injuries were found on the lizard itself.

Suwon City plans to send the captured lizard to the National Institute of Biological Resources to go through a final verification process to determine whether it is indeed the Nile monitor lizard that was reported missing.

If it is confirmed to be the same animal, authorities plan to hand it over to a man in his 30s, identified as A, who previously claimed to be its original owner.

Mr. A appeared at the search site on August 11 and stated, "That lizard is my pet that I lost about a month ago."

The Nile monitor lizard is a Class II international endangered species, and importing it into South Korea requires reporting to the government.

Although it is not venomous, adults can grow up to 2 meters long and may attack humans if they feel threatened, causing concern among nearby residents.

Meanwhile, the police, who have been conducting a pre-indictment investigation into Mr. A on charges of violating the Wildlife Protection Act, plan to verify the exact ownership now that the actual animal has been secured, and review measures such as official booking and the imposition of fines depending on any illegalities found.

(Reported by Kim Taewon | Video by Na Hong-hee | Graphics by Lee Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.