A Florida man was bitten by an alligator after opening his front door Saturday night, local NBC affiliate WESH reports.
According to the station, officers were called to a home on Champions Drive around 9:45 p.m. after a Daytona Beach resident was attacked by the reptile.
The homeowner, Scott Hollingsworth, told WESH that he heard a noise outside his home around 9:42 p.m., and when he stepped outside, “something grabbed me on the leg, started shaking violently.”
He said he didn’t get a good look at his assailant at first and thought it was a dog, but quickly realized it was an alligator.
“Six feet or seven feet,” Hollingsworth guessed at the size of the reptile. “When I saw what it was, I stepped back in the house and closed the door.”
When he looked down, he saw that he “had a large gash in the side of my leg.” “I was trying to put pressure on it,” Hollingsworth added.
He was rushed to an area hospital for surgery.
“Fortunately, there’s no damage to my knee, which I was concerned about,” Hollingsworth told the news outlet. “Everything’s going well.”
A wildlife trapper was called to capture and euthanize the alligator responsible for the attack. The Hollingsworth family later learned the alligator was closer to nine feet.
Hollingsworth, who planned to attend this week’s Bike Week, required surgery for his injury and told WESH that “everything’s going well” — but he “probably won’t be biking anytime soon.”
