Arizona police find Gila monster during DUI traffic stop

MESA, Ariz. — A traffic stop took a wild turn in Mesa, Arizona when police said they saw a venomous animal in the car.

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Mesa police said in a news release that they were called to a convenience store parking lot where Brandon Denney had been seen sleeping behind the wheel of a running car. Arriving officers saw Denney asleep with an orange pill bottle in his hand.

Officers told KSAZ that they woke Denney up to conduct a field sobriety test, and when they did they noticed a Gila monster poking its head out of a box inside of the car.

Denney told police that he had run the animal over and decided to pick it up after seeing it was injured. “Unlike Denney’s story, the Gila monster did not appear to be run over and had no visible injuries,” police said in their news release.

Gila monsters are the largest lizards in the United States, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. They live primarily in Arizona and Mexico but can be found in areas of Nevada, Utah and New Mexico. Gila monsters are one of only a few venomous lizards and are about as toxic as a western diamondback rattlesnake, according to the Smithsonian. There is no antivenin for Gila monster bites.

Mesa police turned the Gila monster over to the Arizona Fish and Game Department, which will open its own investigation, because it is illegal to own or sell a Gila monster in Arizona without a permit.

Police said they found cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl and drug paraphernalia in Denney’s car. Police told WSAZ that Denney also had three outstanding warrants for kidnapping and grand larceny out of California and Nevada.

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