NEW YORK, June 3 (Xinhua) -- "Pepe the Gator," weighing almost 400 pounds and measuring 10 feet in length, was caught loitering off the pavement in Jacksonville, North Carolina, with witnesses saying that "he was just chilling and snapping (and) clearly ignoring the 'no loitering or lounging on roadways' sign," Onslow County Sheriff's Office said in a post on Facebook on Tuesday.

The prehistoric perp "has been cited for Suspicion of Being a Dinosaur without Proper Papers, Public Loitering with Intent to Sunbathe, and Obstructing Traffic," the sheriff's office said.

Pepe was eventually captured and taken to a boat ramp on Camp Geiger, a few miles away, and released back into the wild the same day, USA Today quoted sheriff's office spokesperson Trevor Dunnell as saying. No injuries were reported, except for Pepe's pride when he "refused to be cuffed," authorities said.

American alligators occur naturally in North Carolina, according to North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and can be found inhabiting bay lakes, rivers, creeks, marshes, swamps and ponds. The state is the "northern extent of the alligator's range and they generally become less common as you move from south to north along the NC coast," says the wildlife commission.