Only in Florida: An Ave Maria man open his front door to find a massive gator, watch the capture

What started as an early morning trip to the airport quickly turned into a frightening encounter with an alligator for one Ave Maria family.

Around 4 a.m. Thursday, Gary Bonacci says he woke up to drive his wife to the airport. As he opened the front door of their home on Frattina Street, his three dogs ran outside like they normally do.

Just seconds later, Bonacci realized an alligator was sitting only a few feet from his front porch.

"I took two steps right here into the middle, and I ran into him right here," Bonacci said.

The alligator, later measured at 8 feet, 4 inches long, was sitting directly in the dogs' path.

Bonacci said two of his dogs ran right past the alligator before he could stop them. He quickly got one dog back inside, then managed to safely retrieve the other two.

"It could have been a whole lot worse," he said.

After getting everyone safely inside, Bonacci called 911. He said an alligator trapper arrived about 45 minutes later.

Video captured by the family shows the trapper wrangling the large alligator from the front of the home. The reptile rolled, lunged and clamped onto the trapper's rope before it was finally secured.

Bonacci's brother-in-law, Brendan D'Amato, watched the entire encounter.

"I was amazed at how brave he was," D'Amato said of the trapper.

The family believes the alligator may have wandered into the neighborhood while hunting frogs.

While they've spotted alligators in the lake behind their home before, they say this is the first time one has shown up at their front door.

The family says the trapper told them the alligator was taken to a gator farm after it was removed.