Florida Woman Finds 7-Foot Alligator Inside Garage [Video]

A Florida woman had the shock of her life when she opened her garage door to find a huge alligator hissing at her.

Torrie Heathcoat, who took to Facebook to share a video of the 7-foot-long alligator lurking around in the garage, wrote: "I may have just had a mild heart attack."

She mentioned in the post Sunday she and her family had returned to their Fort Myers home after a trip to Maine, following which her husband went to the gas station. While leaving, he had left the garage door open, and returned to find a gator in the garage. When he informed Heathcoat about it, she thought he was laying a practical joke on her.

"Now I'm terrified that there will be one under my car. I don't know if it came from the lake, I don't know if it came from the reserve," Heathcoat told WPTV.

Heathcoat called 911 and posted a photo to Facebook as she waited for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to respond.

"Andy is lucky he wasn't attacked—he was less than a foot from him! I thought he was kidding, and I opened the door only to be face to face with our guest! I will never forget that moment of fear!" she wrote on Facebook.

The FWC relocated the gator to North Fort Myers.

As of April 2019, there are about 1 million alligators in Florida, according to FWC. Data collected by the organization showed between 1948 and 2019, 413 unprovoked alligator bite incidents have occurred in Florida, of which 25 were fatal.

Last year, a man fought an alligator to save his puppy from the reptile's jaws. On the day of the incident, Richard Wilbanks, 74, saw the alligator was attempting to eat his Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Gunnar. He instantly jumped into a pond and rescued his puppy. Both the owner and the canine suffered injuries from the attack. Wilbanks later told local media he was grateful he was able to fight off the alligator.