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Family welcomed back home with seven-foot gator in garage

It's not even gator mating season yet.
Credit: Kevin Stipe and Cass Couey of PRO HUNT

FORT MYERS, Fla. — If you live in Florida, you know that gators can show up just about anywhere. What you don't expect is for that just about anywhere... to be inside your garage.

That's what happened to one woman right after she says she returned home to Florida.

Torrie Heathcoat shared photos and videos on Facebook of a seven-foot gator inside her garage. Heathcoat says that it was on the other side of the door that leads into her house. She could even hear it through the door.

Heathcoat says she called 911 to get help with the removal of the gator. 

"The poor 911 operator - she doesn’t get paid enough for dealing with my call!" she expressed in her post.

According to a comment made by Heathcoat under one of her posts, the garage door was left open while someone from her home went out to get gas. That's when the gator got in. She had previously seen the gator swimming in the lake behind her home.

Florida Fish and Wildlife came to Heathcoat's rescue and got the gator safely out of the garage. In a Facebook post, she says the gator was relocated to a farm in Fort Myers.

Gator mating season hasn't even begun in Florida yet. According to FWC, courtship begins in early April, then mating happens in May and June.

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