WINTER GARDEN, Fla. — A Winter Garden woman says she had a close call with a gator that ended up on her front doorstep.
Winter Garden resident Shirliene Navarro tells us how the unexpected gator visit happened over the weekend: “My son heard thumping at the door, and when he went to look out the peephole, a 9-foot alligator was trying to get out of our house.”
It was 11 p.m. when Shirliene looked out her window and saw law enforcement with a gator trapper. “We opened the window, and the cops were flashing their lights at us, telling us, don’t come out stay inside the house.”
Shirliene says she lives across Lake Apopka, where construction is happening. “I think he just couldn’t get to it and got confused and disoriented and somehow ended up at my door.”
She’s glad a trapper was able to take it away. “It was staring and hissing, but I watched out the window.”
Shirliene wonders what would have happened under different circumstances. “It would be really scary if my son had opened the front door, and he came barreling into the house. We keep thinking about those things over and over.” Shirlene says she’ll start looking out the window before coming outside.
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