Florida woman finds nearly 8-foot alligator inside her home

April 8 (UPI) -- A Florida woman had to call 911 to get help ejecting an unwanted house guest: a nearly 8-foot-long alligator.

Mary Hollenback said she was at her home in Venice's Grand Palm Community when she heard banging at her front screen door.

"I thought it was somebody else who didn't live here trying to get into the wrong house," Hollenback told WTVT-TV. "I got off the couch and came around the door prepared to say, 'You're in the wrong place.'"

Hollenback said she had two thoughts when she saw the actual source of the sound: "One is, 'Oh my gosh, I have an alligator in my house,' and number two is, 'Oh my gosh, I have an alligator in my house; how am I going to get rid of him?'"

Hollenback called 911, and it ended up taking the combined efforts of several Sarasota County sheriff's deputies and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers to get the 7-foot, 11-inch gator out of the house.

The homeowner said the gator must have traveled from a nearby pond to force its way through her door.

"He had to go through two yards, cross the street and come into my house, but nobody saw him, and it's very surprising," she said.