Miami Man and Dog Find Giant Alligator on Front Doorstep
Man hails neighbor for warning after almost running into gator with his dog.
— -- It always pays off to be a good neighbor -- especially when there are gators roaming on your roadways.
A Miami man said he and his dog had a close call with an eight-foot alligator after it found its way to the front door of his apartment Wednesday afternoon.
Fernando Belmonte-Zbinden said he almost ran right into the gator walking his dog Maggie, a 110-pound great Pyrenees, but a watchful neighbor was close enough to warn him.
![](https://s.abcnews.com/images/US/HT_alligator_front_lawn_01_jef_150605_16x9_992.jpg)
"If it wasn't for my neighbor shouting at us to get back in the house, we would have charged out of the house and run head-on into the alligator," Belmonte-Zbinden told ABC News.
![](https://s.abcnews.com/images/US/HT_alligator_front_lawn_03_jef_150605_16x9t_992.jpg)
When authorities arrived on scene, he said, the alligator was right outside Belmonte-Zbinden's front door in the Emerald Palms apartment complex off southwest 151st Street, not far from the Miami Zoo. A video taken by Belmonte-Zbinden shows trappers removing the animal.
“I had just returned from a meeting, walked in my front door, walked right back out with my dog, when all of a sudden I hear one of my neighbors frantically screaming, 'Get back in, get back in!'” Belmonte-Zbinden said.
“So I pull the dog back in and go into the front room that looks out on the lawn, and just see this giant gator walking by,” Belmonte-Zbinden added. "So, of course, I got my camera and started snapping away -- photographs and taking videos."
![](https://s.abcnews.com/images/US/HT_alligator_front_lawn_04_jef_150605_16x9t_992.jpg)
Belmonte-Zbinden said that, strangely enough, this wasn't the first time he’d seen or photographed this gator, which he said has a distinguishable scar on its tail.
”A lot of people have seen this alligator," Belmonte-Zbinden told ABC News. "It’s never bothered anyone. I photographed it last year over in the canal where I walk my dog. We all know it’s the same one because it's missing one of the three scales on its tail in a crescent shape. So, it grew over a foot since I saw it.”