{"id":347286,"date":"2026-07-21T14:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347286\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:02:10","slug":"terrified-florida-family-wakes-up-to-7-1-2-foot-alligator-at-front-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347286\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Terrified’: Florida family wakes up to 7 1\/2-foot alligator at front door"},"content":{"rendered":"

PALM BAY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A Palm Bay<\/a> family got an unexpected visitor before sunrise on Friday when a 7 1\/2 foot alligator knocked on their front door.<\/p>\n

The family’s home security camera alerted them to the large gator on their front patio just before 4 a.m., according to WESH<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I thought at one point he was gonna come through the window,” homeowner Sierra Wynn told reporters.<\/p>\n

Wynn said the alligator’s tail repeatedly struck the front door and the side of the house as it hissed and growled.<\/p>\n

See also: Flames engulf semi temporarily shutting down SB I-95, 2 lanes now open<\/a><\/p>\n

“His tail was bouncing against the door and bouncing against the house and stuff, and it was such a deep guttural hiss and growl, and he just looked so mean,” Wynn said.<\/p>\n

Palm Bay police and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission<\/a> responded to the home near Malabar Road early that morning.<\/p>\n

“We were scared. Terrified,” Wynn said. “At one point when he was getting kind of agitated with the flashlight in his eyes, he actually looked right up at me with his eyes, and he started opening up his mouth and growling and hissing.”<\/p>\n

She said she’s thankful her family’s security cameras alerted them to the alligator before anyone opened the front door or garage.<\/p>\n

Wynn thanks technology and surveillance for the situation not escalating into something far worse: <\/p>\n

If we didn’t have, you know, the cameras and the features where we get notifications that there’s animals in your yard, you know who knows what would have happened. If I had opened the garage to let the dog out. If I had opened the front door, I wouldn’t have known.<\/p>\n

Officials remind the public that if anyone spots an alligator in a residential area, they should avoid approaching and call law enforcement, who will contact FWC to have a trapper respond if needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALM BAY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A Palm Bay family got an unexpected visitor before sunrise on Friday when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-347286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}