Laravel store function changes return data - php

Question

Quite sure I'm doing something wrong here, just don't know what or where.
I have a Laravel controller that handles an ajax post request and returns the results of a curl request to that ajax call:
public function store()
{
/** Receive long and lat through ajax **/
$long = Input::get('longitude');
$lat = Input::get('latitude');
$location = $lat . "," . $long;
$url = blablable;
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl,
array(
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => 1,
CURLOPT_URL => $url
));
$result = curl_exec($curl);
return $result;
curl_close($curl);
}
This works: the curl returns a JSON array, which gets passed back to the ajax call.
But now I want to save the incoming data to the database:
$location = new Location();
$location->latitude = Input::get('latitude');
$location->longitude = Input::get('longitude');
$location->save();
I add those 4 lines at the top of the function, the data gets saved to the database but the JSON array get's grabbled, somehow <!-- app/models/Location.php --> gets added to the top of the return, making the JSON array invalid.
No clue as to what is causing this so any hints or suggestions are highly appreciated!
-- Edit 1 --
The result of Input::all(); is
array(2) {
["latitude"]=>
string(10) "50.8809794"
["longitude"]=>
string(9) "4.6920714"
}

Answer 1

This is not intended as a solution, but as a way to clean up your code a bit:
You don't need to use curl and can use Request::create() and Route::dispatch() instead.
You should use the protected $fillable attribute in your model, to clean up the new entry.
Your code can become:
public function store()
{
// This is for saving the entry
$location = new Location();
$location->fill(Input::all());
$location->save();
// This is for the cURL
// (assuming this is a GET requst, but other methods are available)
$request = Request::create('/path/to/url/', 'GET');
$response = Route::dispatch($request);
// Do stuff with the $response or just return it
return $response;
}