Mary Hollenback, a resident of Venice, Florida, wasn’t expecting any house guests when she heard her screen door rattling. Turns out, it was an almost eight-foot alligator breaking into her house. The gator got in and crawled down the hallway and into her kitchen before she found it.
“I thought somebody who didn’t live here was trying to come in, thinking that they were probably in the wrong house because that happens frequently,” Hollenback told local news station WFLA. “So, by the time I got up and went near the front door, the gator was already inside.”
When she did find it, she did what anyone should do when an alligator (or anyone uninvited) breaks into their home . . . she called 9-1-1.
Alligators live all across Florida, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission works to educate residents on how to co-exist with them.
Crocodiles also live in the southern portion of the state, and, in fact, this is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles live together. You can tell an alligator from a crocodile by looking at its snout shape (alligators have a U-shaped snout versus a crocodile’s v-shaped snout) and its teeth. When an alligator closes its mouth, you can’t see its teeth. When a crocodile closes its mouth, you can still see teeth poking out.
What would you do if you found a giant alligator had broken into your home?
