TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida father was shocked when he came across a 7-foot alligator hiding under his truck on Thursday.
Joey Quinlan told WFLA.com he was working at his home in New Tampa when he got a phone call from his next-door neighbor. It was alarming enough for Quinlan to race out the door, phone in hand.
“It’s big,” a woman can be heard saying in a cellphone video as Quinlan cautiously edged further from his front door.
It was an alligator — 7 feet long to the mark.
With no pond in sight, Quinlan was curious as to how the scaly suspect wound up underneath his Toyota pickup.
Quinlan said he and his family had moved from Illinois about three-and-a-half years ago. Since then, they had not seen anything like the beast which sat before them. The occasional snake or large insect, maybe, but nothing like the 80 conical-shaped teeth staring back at them.
Quinlan said they had received an education about gators before the encounter and decided to call a trapper to handle the ordeal.
After a few minutes, Quinlan said the gator was captured and humanely relocated.
When asked about the unusual experience, he said it was “exciting and shocking.”
