“My house was in his way so I can’t be upset at an alligator for that,” homeowner Mary Hollenback said.
VENICE, Fla. — You might live next to a friendly neighbor who routinely pops up to your front door just to say hello.
Well, this scaly neighbor not only made its presence known but invited itself into a Venice woman’s home unannounced in late March, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
On March 28, the FWC and Sarasota County deputies arrived at Mary Hollenback’s home on Palatka Drive in Venice, after she called them about a nearly 8-foot-long alligator that pushed its way into her front screen door only latched by a magnet.
Hollenback told 10 Tampa Bay she was sitting in her living room that evening around 5 p.m. watching television when she heard banging on her front door, thinking it was someone who lost their way.
“I thought someone was trying to get into the wrong house. I got up, went to tell them they’re in the wrong house,” Hollenback said.
“…and then I grabbed my phone that was sitting on my island and headed out to the lanai and called 911,” Hollenback continued.
Officials were on their way when the gator slid through her home and into her kitchen, where it got stuck between the island and the stove. This ill position eventually caused damage to Hollenback’s cabinets, as the animal performed a death roll when officials tried to capture it, she said.
Florida Fish and Wildlife told Hollenback the alligator most likely came from the pond across from her house as a result of mating season, which started this month and will last through June.
Hollenback thinks he was most likely making his way to another pond behind her house.
Recent sightings of alligators strutting through golf courses and expressways are evidence of mating season.
“He’s just being a gator; he’s doing what nature told him to do,” Hollenback said. “My house was in his way so I can’t be upset at an alligator for that.”
