A 10- to 11-foot alligator broke into a woman’s home in Clearwater early Friday and thrashed about, breaking wine bottles and knocking over furniture while a trapper removed it, police said.
The woman discovered the alligator in her kitchen around 3:30 a.m. She locked herself in her bedroom and called 911, police said.
“I have a gigantic alligator who came in through my garage and is sitting in my kitchen. A huge one,” the unidentified woman says in the 911 call released by authorities. “I don’t know how it got here but it’s here.”
The 911 caller advised her to stay in her room with the door locked.
“I’m not going anywhere,” the woman responded. She was alone in the home and had no pets.
A newspaper delivery driver first alerted authorities to the alligator, which she saw acting aggressively in front of a home on Eagles Landing Circle West.
“If that owner wakes up, they’re gonna be in big problems, because it’s right there in front of their door and he’s making a sound. I mean he’s thrashing,” the driver told authorities during a 911 call.
The alligator broke a lower window and climbed into the home.
Clearwater police arrived and called for a trapper, who used a snare to drag the alligator back out through the same window.
The alligator had minor cuts on its shoulder but was otherwise uninjured, Clearwater police said.
It was taken to a private location where authorities were determining whether it should be relocated to an alligator farm in Fort Meade, police said.
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