LAKELAND , Fla., March 2 (UPI) — A family in Lakeland discovered a massive 9-foot alligator taking a leisurely swim in their pool on Tuesday.
Laura Lear shared video with Fox 13 News showing the large gator being pulled out of the pool inside the family’s sealed patio.
Her husband Craig Lear said he spotted the gator while letting the family’s cats out onto the patio.
“I saw a bubble in the pool and I thought a golf ball had come through the screen so I went up and I didn’t see a golf ball. I looked in the deep end and there was a big gator,” he told Bay News 9.
The Lears called in a trapper who was able to remove the reptile after a bit of a struggle.
“He used a lasso effect, wrapped him up and it was pretty scary,” Laura Lear said. “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.”
The gator made a large hole in the patio screen in order to enter the property but didn’t cause any more damage before being removed.
