Massive alligator surprises Naples family in their backyard pool

A Naples family had an unexpected visitor in their backyard pool—a massive alligator.

Rob Emhoff, a neighbor, shared his disbelief about the unusual encounter.

"This is crazy. And nobody believed. And we saw, like, the video, especially when he was rolling, and it was the big boy," said Emhoff. "My wife got up with this little one to take her to the bathroom, probably around 1 a.m., and all of a sudden she came back in, and she's like, Hey, I just heard something splash in the pool," said Emhoff.

The Emhoffs realized the sound wasn't the pool filter.

"Next, you know, we saw, like, the huge shadow become, you know, this crazy striped alligator," said Emhoff.

The alligator was spotted lounging by the basketball hoop in the deep end of the pool.

"He was down over there at the deep end. And then he moved over. He's right by the basketball hoop. There he was just kind of hanging out. He kept going to the bottom. Then he was popping his head up," Emhoff said.

The family suspects the gator entered through a broken fence, then walked through the side yard and into the pool.

The Emhoffs promptly called the non-emergency line for Collier County, and authorities arrived within 10 minutes.

"We called the non-emergency line for Collier County. They were here in about 10 minutes," said Emhoff.

It took another 10 minutes for wildlife officials to harness the gator.

"It took him probably, like 10 minutes or so to actually get him, like, harnessed," said Emhoff.

The gator was then subdued by taping its mouth shut.

"He had to grab his mouth and tape him up," Emhoff said.

As the gator hissed and whipped its tail, the excitement continued.

"It started hissing, and then he started whipping its tail, and yeah, he wasn't happy. Definitely wasn't happy," said Emhoff.

The gator, affectionately nicknamed "the Florida puppy," was measured at just under eight feet.

"When they measured it was just under eight feet," Emhoff said.

The alligator was loaded into a trailer already occupied by two other gators, leading to some tension.

"Then when he loaded him into the trailer up front, he really wasn't happy because there were another two gators in there, and they just didn't play very nice," said Emhoff.