A homeowner woke up to find a nearly 11-foot-long, more than 550-pound alligator taking a dip in his swimming pool.
The family in Deep Creek, Florida, were awakened to loud noises. The gator first ripped through a screen in order to plunge into the pool for a cool swim, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office.
A state alligator trapper and sheriff’s deputies caught and removed the reptile in a joint effort.
‘Always check your pool before diving in!’ the sheriff’s office wrote in a on Tuesday.
‘A Deep Creek family was awakened by some loud noises on their lanai and came out to find this guy taking a dip in their pool.
‘Coming in at 10’11” and weighing over 550lbs, he tore through the screen to get to the nice, cool water.’
Images shared on Facebook showed the massive gator appearing to float serenely in the pool at night. In one of the pictures, the reptile seemed to sit at the bottom of the pool.
A couple of other snaps showed the gator trapper tying the reptile’s mouth shut and a couple of sheriff’s deputies subduing the creature with a pole.
The incident in Deep Creek, which is roughly 30 miles north of Fort Myers, isn’t the only occasion in recent years that an alligator has enjoyed a swimming pool in the Sunshine State.
In October 2019, alligator trapper Paul Bedard in Parkland, Florida. Bedard, who works for the Gator Boys removal company, held the eight-foot-long reptile over his head in the end.
Bedard even said he was ‘kind of looking forward’ to meeting the creature after getting the phone call. It is relatively easy to capture alligators in pools because the water is much more clear than their natural swamp homes, he said.
As with the Deep Creek incident, Bedard said ‘the gator had walked through the screen and into the pool’.
‘These are actually fun because the gator can’t go anywhere and the water’s almost always crystal clear,’ he said.
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