A Florida family was shocked after they spotted a huge alligator wandering in their yard in Longwood in Seminole County. The homeowner said the gator then got entangled in a lacrosse net for about 45 minutes.

The resident was initially terrified when he saw the alligator, UPI News reported. Minutes later, he saw the gator was stuck in the net, trying hard to get out of it. It took a long time for the gator to free itself and wander into the nearby woods, the resident told local media.

The homeowner, who has not been identified, said the family later found a dead snake in the net and speculated the gator was attempting to eat it and got stuck.

In the video shared by the resident, the gator can be seen strolling in the yard just seconds after it managed to get out of the net.

“God, he is huge,” the homeowner can be heard saying on the video.

Alligators are known to live in the Longwood area; however, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will not relocate the reptiles unless they are more than 4 feet long or if the gators exhibit aggressive behavior. People in Florida often have close encounters with alligators, and in some cases, the reptiles are spotted in residential areas.

As of April 2019, there were said to be around one million alligators. According to FWC, between 1948 and 2019, 413 unprovoked alligator bite incidents took place, of which 25 were fatal.

In a recent incident, a woman and her friends had a narrow escape from an alligator attack while they were on a fishing trip in the Florida Everglades. This area is known to have alligators in abundance. A "terrifying" TikTok video showed a gator sneaking up on the unaware woman.

The video, which went viral, shows the gator calmly staring at her from the water a few feet away. At one point, the gator is seen slowly raising its head out of the water. In the video, the woman can be heard screaming: "Oh my god, holy s---." Another person was heard saying: "That's why you do not ever sit down with your legs in the water."

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Above, an alligator is seen in Big Cypress Preserve in Florida. Getty Images