Mother's Day Surprise At Parkland Home
PARKLAND (CBSMiami) – It was quite a Mother's Day surprise for one family in Parkland.
No, it wasn't a special brunch or unexpected gift. Instead, it was an unexpected visitor and not in the good way.
Alfonso Castaneda said when he woke up Sunday morning, he found a large alligator hanging out on the front porch of his home at 8177 Emerald Avenue.
Castaneda said that his dogs woke him up around 7 a.m., barking at something and it wasn't a person.
"I got up to see what was going on," said Castaneda. "The first thing I see is this about eight-foot alligator, it was just staring at me right through the [glass] door and it just blew my mind. I called my mother, I called my wife, I called my son; everybody come look at it."
Castaneda said seeing a gator at his door wasn't an everyday thing so he did the first thing that anyone else would do.
"This is a once in a lifetime that you are going to see an alligator come knocking at your door at 7:00 in the morning," said Castaneda. "The first thing that I did was started taking pictures because I couldn't believe it. I wanted to make sure I got those pictures."
Castaneda then called the Gator Boys. Nuisance alligator trapper with Florida Wildlife Commission, Paul Bedard, dragged the eight foot plus gator into a side yard and secured it.
"The way that this thing [the building] is set up they kind of get in there and get trapped, I guess this guy just decided to wait for the sun to go down," said Bedard.
The process was actually an easy capture, according to Bedard.
"He's on land there's nowhere he could go. I was just concerned with getting him out of that area and not have him spin or bang his face up on the concrete, or break somebody's window," said Bedard. "Just real gently slid him out, get him onto the grass and after that point it's like an alligator wrestling show. Just spin him around a little bit until he gets tired. Jump on him, tape his mouth shut."
The bagged gator was then taken to Everglades Holiday Park.
