Florida couple find 9-foot alligator in their backyard pool

April 9 (UPI) -- A Florida couple said they were stunned when they looked into their backyard pool and spotted a gigantic alligator at the bottom.

Senta Evans said she was checking the yard for potential hazards before letting her dogs out Monday morning in Palm Beach Gardens when she spotted the massive 9-foot gator at the bottom of the pool.

Evans' husband, Mike, said she was expecting a small reptile when his wife summoned him to the pool, but he was shocked by the alligator's size.

The couple summoned a trapper from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"The trapper came out here with some gear to get a 6-foot alligator out," Mike Evans told WPBF-TV. "He said, 'That thing's 9 feet,' and he went back and got bigger gear. It was kind of nuts."

The couple captured video as the trapper worked for about 20 minutes to hook the gator and hoist it out of the water.

They said the trapper theorized the gator may have squeezed under their chain-link fence to get into the yard. The trapper told them the animal would be relocated to a more suitable habitat.

The FWC said alligator mating season is beginning, bringing the reptiles out into public in greater numbers.