A Florida man stumbled across quite a surprise in his garage Wednesday morning.
Hank Stout said he went into the garage of his Merritt Island home to search for a box and noticed what he thought was a realistic-looking alligator. It turned out, it was a realistic-looking gator because it was a real alligator.
Stout said at first he thought someone put a fake gator in his garage as a prank, and he almost decided to reach out and touch it. He's sure glad he didn't.
When the gator started hissing at him, Stout said he quickly realized that the 6-foot long reptile was no fake and called 9-1-1.
Wildlife trappers soon responded to wrangle the gator. The experts said it’s likely the gator was looking for a hiding spot while trying to travel from one body of water to another.
Trappers said that gators tend to be on the move more during mating season, which begins soon.
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Stout said he thinks the gator might have walked into the garage door Tuesday night when he took his son to a Boy Scouts meeting because he forgot to close the door.
He said he won't make that mistake again.
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