CANAVERAL GROVES, Fla. – With over 1.3 million alligators in Florida, odds are you might see one around Central Florida. But for one local woman, her encounter with the reptile was a little too close to home.
Kellie Bardo and her grandson had an exciting morning as an alligator greeted them in front of their Canaveral Grove home. Bardo said it started as a usual morning until she saw the unwelcome guest.
"It was 6 o'clock in the morning and my dogs were in the driveway and I didn't hear or see anything," Bardo said. "I even walked down there with them as they went to the bathroom and nothing. But at 7:15 we went back out and there was this monstrosity in my ditch. It scared me half to death."
Police and trappers were called to the home Friday morning. The gator measured at 9 feet 4 inches and was about 300 pounds.
"He was at the end of the property about two acres down from here last week but I didn't see him the neighbor told me he did to be careful. "And I was hoping he wouldn't come this way but there's a huge ditch on the other side of the road so I think he must've been living in there"" said Bardo.
Several bite marks on the gators indicate that he might have been kicked out of the habitat after being involved in a fight with other large gators. Trapper believed this was why he was found wandering the neighborhood.
The active alligator season runs through the end of August. And since the gator was over 4 feet, the state Alligator Nuisance mandate required him to be euthanized.
Local 6 spoke to the trapper, and he told us that the number of alligator nuisances calls have been about average so far this year.