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Gator in pool? A lakeland family was in for a shock when they discovered a 9-foot, 300-pound alligator hanging out in their swimming pool.
Craig Lear, 38, came home from work around 5:30 p.m. and let his cats out in the backyard screened-in patio. He noticed bubbles rising to the surface of his pool, but because they live on a golf course, he thought it was a stray ball, WFLA and ABC News reports.
But when he walked over and looked in, he saw the gator lying on the bottom.
“I hear stories about gators, but never at my house,” said Craig’s wife, Laura.
The Lears called Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation, which sent a trapper over to wrangle the gator. According to ABC News, it took the 13-year veteran trapper an hour to bring the gator up with a lasso.
The creature was euthanized and would be processed for its meat and hide, Scott Barbon told ABC News. He caught the gator barefoot, the “best pair of shoes” he has on the job.
“He used a lasso effect, wrapped him up and it was pretty scary. At one point, waves were rocking in the pool from the gator thrashing around, but then the trapper tired him out and hauled him out the door,” Laura told Bay News 9.
Seeing a gator isn’t too unheard of in Florida. A Lake County man lost his hand when a gator leapt out of a canal last year while a Volusia County man was bitten in the leg near the place he was camping. Of course, there is also the Jupiter man who decided to toss the gator into the Wendy’s drive-thru window.
Agencies/Canadajournal
