Check Your Yards, Champlin Residents: 3-Foot-Long Pet Monitor Lizard Missing

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Live in the Champlin area? Wondering if that huge lizard you saw strolling through your yard was a figment of your imagination?

Police say there is indeed a 3-foot-long pet Asian water monitor lizard that ran away from home, and the owner would love a reptile reunion.

(credit: Carl Court/Getty Images)

"A brief Wikipedia search has informed us that it mostly likes to eat rodents and crocodile eggs (it's obviously not from around here)," police wrote on their Facebook page. "Our community service officer has studied and trained diligently for years from this exact situation, and he is ready to take this creature safely into custody."

If you do come into contact with the animal, be careful. Wikipedia also notes that the Asian water monitor, when cornered, may use its claws and jaws in its defense.

Call Champlin Police at 763-421-2971 if you spot this cold-blooded (in a good way) runaway.