Florida Man Bitten By Alligator Outside His Front Door

A Florida man was hospitalized over the weekend after he was greeted by an irate alligator on his front porch.

Scott Hollingsworth told WESH he heard a noise outside his home, thinking someone was looking for his son. When he opened the front door, the unexpected visitor lunged at him and bit his upper thigh.

"Went outside and didn't turn the light on and just got a step outside and something grabbed me on the leg, started shaking violently," he recalled, thinking the assailant was a dog at first. "When I saw what it was, I stepped back in the house and closed the door. Looked down and I had a large gash in the side of my leg. I was trying to put pressure on it."

The Daytona Beach Police Department confirmed they responded to a home in the 1100 block of Champions Drive around 9:42 p.m. Saturday (March 4) on a report of an alligator attack. The suspected alligator was euthanized by a state-certified trapper, officers added.

The gator was reportedly seven feet and ten inches long, according to Curtis Lucas, who identified himself as the trapper to The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Hollingsworth was taken to the hospital to get surgery on his injured leg.

"Fortunately, there's no damage to my knee, which I was concerned about," Hollingsworth explained. "Everything's going well."