An alligator recently strolled into a Florida woman’s home after making its way through a screen door that was latched shut with a magnet.
On March 28, the homeowner, Mary Hollenback of Venice, found the nearly 8-foot-long reptile after she heard a banging sound at her door, according to Fox 13 Tampa Bay.
“I thought it was somebody else who didn’t live here trying to get into the wrong house,” she recalled.
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Hollenback said she rose from her living room couch to investigate and found the large alligator walking through her house.
At that moment, Hollenback had two initial thoughts, she said.
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“One is, ‘Oh my gosh, I have an alligator in my house,’ and number two is, ‘Oh my gosh, I have an alligator in my house; How am I going to get rid of him?’,” she told Fox 13, adding that she was “shaking” in fear.
Hollenback then went outside and dialed 911.
“By that point, I was shaking so badly, I didn’t know who else to call,” Hollenback said.
Hollenback told Fox News Digital that the alligator stopped in her kitchen before officers arrived.
“The alligator was in the house for just over an hour by the time everyone got there and were ready to extract him,” she said.
Hollenback noted that the alligator was clearly frustrated by getting stuck in the kitchen as he was “hissing like a snake.”
Deputies from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) were able to remove the alligator, which measured 7 feet, 11 inches, from Hollenback’s home.
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“They [the officers] were so calm, so professional that you’d have thought they did this everyday,” Hollenback said. “I can’t thank them enough for what they did.”
Hollenback told Fox 13 that she believes the alligator came from the pond across the street before it entered her house.
“Nobody saw him, and it’s very surprising,” she said, referring to her neighbors.
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She added, “Only in Florida are you going to get an alligator in the house.”
The FWC has multiple safety tools and tips on its website for those who find themselves in the presence of an alligator.
“Alligators less than 4 feet in length are not large enough to be dangerous to people or pets, unless handled,” says the FWC’s website.
“You should never handle an alligator, even a small one, because alligator bites can result in serious infection, and it’s illegal.”
It also says, “If there’s an alligator under 4 feet in your swimming pool, on your porch or in a similar situation, call the Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286).”
Fox News Digital reached out to the FWC and Hollenback for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Sydney Borchers contributed to this report.
