Keshia Trafton said her family first found the Asian water monitor captured in Maryland resting on an Amazon package near the front door of their Bowie home. The lizard, measuring about 3 1/2 feet long, kept returning to the property and drew a Thursday search by animal control officers.
Keshia Trafton’s front steps
Trafton said the lizard turned up more than once near the family’s front steps and yard, and later on a house pillar. During warm weather, it emerged from nearby bushes, giving the household repeated close-range encounters instead of a single sighting.
The family was worried about its two small dogs. Photos identified the reptile as an Asian water monitor, a large lizard that had been seen near the front door, steps, bushes, and pillar before officers arrived.
Thursday in Bowie
Animal control officers searched the property Thursday but did not find the reptile. Humane traps had already failed to catch it, leaving the family waiting for another return visit from officers who planned to remove it safely.
Maryland law does not classify monitor lizards as dangerous, which leaves the response focused on capture rather than any dangerous-animal designation. Where the Asian water monitor came from and whether it has been captured are still the unresolved parts of the case, and those are the details that will determine whether the family keeps seeing it at the house.
