A couple who recently moved from Pennsylvania to Florida received a welcome they won't soon forget: upon exiting their home, they found a huge alligator resting at their doorstep, right next to their truck and a golf cart.
The unusual encounter took place on August 23 in Palmetto, Manatee County, according to reported FOX 13.
Allan and Sandy Hofmann had just settled in Florida in March and did not expect to encounter so soon and so closely one of the most characteristic residents of the state.
The alligator did not seem to have any intention of leaving; it quietly remained on the pavement next to the vehicles, forcing Allan to call the police because he didn't know how to remove the enormous reptile from the property.
Agents then requested the intervention of specialized trappers. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) told FOX 13 that the specimen measured eight feet and three inches —about 2.49 meters— and was captured alive.
According to Sandy, their weight should have been between 300 and 350 pounds (136 and 159 kilograms).
WWSB revealed that Allan had already developed the habit of checking under the truck and the golf cart before taking his dog out for a walk, as he had previously seen alligators in the neighborhood.
This time, when he returned from his walk, the visitor was waiting for him, and his first concern was to get his 70-pound dog inside the house.
But before calling the professionals, Allan decided to try a fairly unconventional maneuver: he climbed onto the golf cart and touched the alligator on the head with a pool float, thinking that this would make it leave.
The plan had the opposite effect: the reptile began to hiss, and the man understood that it was time to leave the work to specialists.
"I realized at that moment that I was overwhelmed," he told WWSB.
The trappers were finally able to immobilize the animal and drag it to the grass to remove it. No one was injured during the incident.
Sandy later confessed that she had never thought she would have such a close encounter with one of these reptiles.
"He's the first we have seen, and I wish he would be the last," he said in an interview aired by WFLA and published by AOL.
The couple ended up taking the experience with humor and summarized the episode with a very Floridian phrase: "Welcome to Florida."
They are right: encounters are not exactly rare in the state. The FWC explains that the American alligator primarily inhabits freshwater lakes, slow-moving rivers, and wetlands, although it can also be found in brackish waters.
Females rarely exceed 10 feet, while males can reach considerably larger sizes.
The Palmetto episode also took place during a specific time in the cycle of these animals: according to the FWC, the eggs usually hatch between mid-August and early September, following the mating period of May and June.
In recent weeks, several notable meetings have been reported in Florida.
In August, a 10-foot alligator weighing over 300 pounds was spotted near Coconut Creek High School in Broward.
The animal was captured with the help of the FWC and was transported without any reported injuries.
That month, another much more dangerous incident occurred: a woman was bitten on the arm while swimming in the Silver River, in Marion County. Several people managed to pull her out of the water, and she was taken to a hospital; later, a nine-foot-eight-inch alligator was removed from the area.
In July, another specimen starred in an equally surprising scene when it crossed the screen of a house in Venice and ended up swimming in the pool. The alligator measured nine feet and four inches and had to be removed by a trapper.
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