BUCKLEY, Wash. (AP) -- Pierce County Sheriff's deputies were startled Friday when they entered a house near Buckley for a drug bust and found an alligator in one of the bedrooms.

It wasn't a giant alligator, but it was big enough and looked plenty fierce enough to scare them ... even though the deputies were armed.

Sheriff's detective Ed Troyer says the four-foot-long alligator was in a closet and had water ... and was moving around inside the house. Troyer says the alligator was big enough and had a big enough mouth to do some serious damage.

Police say they believed the alligator belonged to Jeff Blakely, a man facing charges of illegal possession of an exotic animal as well as charges involved with the drug raid. Also arrested was Robert Beardsley.

Deputies didn't want to take on the alligator themselves. They contacted animal services, which turned it over to an animal rescue group called Predators of the Heart.