An 8-foot alligator causes quite a stir as it takes a dip in a family’s backyard pool

Matt Fino took his dog, Charlie, out for his walk like any other Monday morning. But this day was anything but routine.

Fino found a gator at the bottom of his pool not far from where Charlie usually does his business. Not a wayward University of Florida Gator taking a swim but, rather, a good old-fashioned Florida gator — all 8 feet of it, Boca Raton police said. The scaly reptile basked in the bottom of his pool as a lime green noodle flotation toy lazily hugged the pool’s coping.

“It’s an eye opener,” Fino told WSVN.

“I saw the gator, and I couldn’t even,” his wife, Janet Rosa, told the station after her husband ran into the house to wake her to his find. “I was in total shock.”

Boca Raton police responded, snapped photos, and everyone waited for trappers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to come and remove the beast after its dip. The couple say they will now check for gators, along with the usual frogs and spiders one finds in backyards across South Florida.

Fino’s verdict after trappers safely removed the reptile? “So freaking cool.”

This story was originally published February 6, 2018 at 5:13 PM with the headline "An 8-foot alligator causes quite a stir as it takes a dip in a family’s backyard pool."