Anyone missing a crocodile?

This is the question Victoria police are busy asking on Boxing Day morning - and they are serious.

It all started when two residents from leafy Heidelberg Heights, in the city's north-east, took a Christmas Day stroll and suffered quite the shock when they discovered a crocodile in the front yard of a local business.

Police called to the scene thought the residents may have been exaggerating, and were expecting to find a large lizard. But upon arriving at the Waiora Road address shortly after 8.30pm they found a one-metre long reptile sitting quietly on the footpath.