STUART, Fla. — After spending three days with his mother-in-law in Vero Beach during Hurricane Milton, Emile De Cuba was relieved to come back to his Stuart home and see it left with minimal damage from the storm.
The only thing that shocked De Cuba when checking his house? An alligator in the pool.
"I came home yesterday at around 11:30, and when I went by my sliding door I went 'Woah!'," De Cuba said.
De Cuba was not only alarmed to see the over four-foot gator, but was questioning how the gator got into their fenced house. De Cuba was quick to call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, who swiftly removed the unwelcomed visitor from the pool.
"The yard is pretty guarded, we have a wooden fence on one side and a chain-link fence on the other with a bunch of vegetation," De Cuba said. "The wildlife officer told me that it probably went over the chain-link fence because they can climb those."
WATCH: FWC removes alligator from pool in Stuart home
Next to the home of De Cuba and his wife, Susan, is a condominium with a retention pond where they believe the gator came from.
"The first thing (FWC) asked me was if there was a retention pond around here," De Cuba said. "They said it commonly happens after these storms, (alligators) get confused."
De Cuba said that he will now probably install something over the chain-link fence to avoid an alligator crawling its way back to the house.
