PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – A Florida man who walked into his garage to retrieve a box instead encountered an alligator.
Hank Stout told WFTV in Orlando that he came face to face with the 6-foot gator when he bent down to pick up a box at his Merritt Island home.
At first, he thought the gator was a fake, until it started hissing.
"It was a good size alligator," Stout said.
A trapper was called to remove the gator.
Stout believes the gator got inside when he and his son left for a Boy Scouts meeting. The garage door was left open until they returned.
"I think he came in to get out of the cold," Stout said.
It wasn't Stout's first encounter with a gator. When he was 15, Stout, his brother and a friend caught a 7-foot gator in South Florida.