Trappers interrupt gator's leisurely swim at Florida pool
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Although the severe weather kept many from enjoying the outdoors in Central Florida on Tuesday, that's not the case for an alligator that was looking to take a dip in a family's swimming pool in Orlando's Lake Nona community.
Edson Moura, the homeowner, captured the alligator removal on his cell phone. It was a long night for the Moura family. They just came home from the hospital with a newborn baby boy, but their tired eyes weren't playing tricks on them when they looked in the backyard.
"We looked to the pool and we see an alligator there,” Moura laughed. "He was in the waterfall breathing with his head out."
Moura called Orange County Fire Rescue to deal with their uninvited guest. Then it was up to Alligator Trappers to fish the 6-foot long alligator out of the pool.
"Size of a man,” Moura said.
The trapper used a fishing pole to get a hold of him. The alligator put up a fight spinning and struggling before being pulled out of the water and dragged onto the grass to have its jaw taped shut.
"My little boys say, ‘Dad, I can't believe this!’”
The homeowner said he has no idea how an alligator of that size got into his bark yard, since its entirely fenced in and the largest opening is about four inches wide.
The family said they've never seen an alligator in their neighborhood or on the golf course in the four years they've lived there.
But now they have quite memory for their baby's first birthday.
"It was vey funny,” Moura said.
The alligator will be euthanized.