So great is the diligence of the U.S. Postal Service that, upon finding a four-foot alligator chewing its way out of a box in a mailroom, the first reaction they had was to try to tape the box shut.

According to Postal Service spokeswoman JoAnne Blackburn, sorters at a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, post office first noticed the alligator as it tried to free itself from an express-postage carton en route to Colorado.

"It had bit through the corner of the box," recalled postal worker Jennifer Hejdak, "and the nose was sticking out with its teeth hanging out." Staff tried to tape the box shut, but the gator chewed through and sauntered out. Another worker then grabbed the gator by the tail and tossed it into a mail hamper.

Though no return address was marked, a Milwaukee TV station reported the sender as being a university student who'd housed the gator for about a week before realizing he didn't want it anymore.

» Scott Saxon