March 22 (UPI) -- Authorities in Maine said they seized five baby alligators after the tiny reptiles escaped from an open box inside a taxi cab.

Augusta police, Animal Control officers, and members of the Maine Warden Service responded to the Concord Coach Lines bus station Tuesday afternoon and seized the five baby alligators from Yifan Sun, 20, a Chinese citizen attending the University of Maine at Augusta.

Investigators said they had received a tip about the alligators being transported to the station in a taxi and they intercepted the cab when it arrived.

The taxi driver, Frank Folsom, said he learned his passenger was transporting the alligators when they escaped from an open cardboard box in the back seat of his cab. He said he helped capture the gators and purchased a plastic container with a lid for the rest of the trip.

He said one of the alligators latched onto his sleeve during the encounter.

"He got my shirt," Folsom told CentralMaine.com. I said, 'He's trying to eat me!'

Folsom said the alligators must have been spotted by a member of the public and reported to police.

Sun told investigators he had received the alligators about two months ago from a friend in Alabama in exchange for a turtle.

"These don't belong in Maine," Augusta Officer Nicholas Sterling as telling Sun. I know the movie Lake Placid says otherwise, but these don't belong in Maine.

Sun was issued a summons for importing or possessing wildlife without a permit. The baby gators were seized and taken to a Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife facility.

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