Metts Bahadir probably assumed an elaborately decorated trick-or-treater would be the scariest thing to knock on his door last week, but the 10 1/2-foot alligator that stopped by for a visit on Thursday night proves otherwise.
A Florida resident since 1986, Bahadir had never seen an alligator close-up before he woke up to the sound of scratching and discovered the beastly creature on the front porch of his home in Lutz, just north of Tampa.
“It was like the wild kingdom was at my door," he told ABC Action News.
Bahadir called the Tampa Police, who then contacted a trapper to get the gator away from the home.
Video shows the trapper lassoing the gator, and shows the animal lashing out in response.
Bahadir admits he was scared and that he feared for his children, ages 5 and 8.
"I would have been really worried my son could have opened the door," he told 10 News.
"A 10-foot alligator is a big alligator, but it's not that uncommon," Gary Morse of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told Huffington Post.
He said an alligator this size would generally not be relocated.
Trappers who catch alligators often kill and process them for their hides and meat, according to the Commission's website.
Researchers estimate there are about 1.3 million gators in Florida.