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TAMPA (FOX 13) - It was a quiet night in one New Tampa neighborhood -- until loud banging noises woke homeowner Jason Rogers from his sleep.
“I peeked through my kitchen window and saw something in the grass,” Rogers said.
That something was a 7-foot-long alligator, slamming against the side of his home.
“It was really scary, just because of the sheer size, I could tell it was over 6 feet,” he said.
Rogers and his wife called 911, who eventually called in for back-up.
The trapper says though mating season is still about a month away, the weather has some gators starting early.
“During mating season, they have lots of energy, I like to call it they’re [being] real hot," Robb Upthegrove said. "They’re pumped up, they’re wanting to reproduce, so they don’t want you messing with them.”
A native Floridian, Rogers says he doesn’t think much about seeing gators.
“But when the get that close and they’re that big, yeah, it was a cause for concern," he said.
The female gator will be transferred to a gator farm in Florida, where Upthegrove says she will be used as a breeder. The trapper said that alligator could have been doing one of two things last night in that neighborhood -- either relocating to another body of water, or searching for a male.
FOX 13 reached out to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who said alligators are more active and visible in spring due to warmer temperatures.
You can report a nuisance gator through the FWC: http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/managed/alligator/snap/
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