A Lake County man is in the hospital after an alligator bit him while he was doing yard work.
The incident happened just before 5 p.m. at a home on Lynn Circle in the Imperial Terrace neighborhood of Tavares.
“I was pulling out the weeds like this and he came up right there and grabbed me," said William Bechard.
Bechard said he has seen gators before in the canal but the attack happened so fast he doesn’t remember seeing the gator that bit him.
"All of a sudden I just had pressure, no splash, no nothing. Then I got up like this and it splashed right there," Bechard explained.
Bechard was taken to Florida Hospital Waterman, where he was treated and released for his wounds.
Bechard said he was doing yard work less than a foot way from the water, when the 7-foot-7 gator jumped up and chomped down on his arm.
“I never expected to get bit by an alligator even in my backyard. I’m off my dock all the time, fishing you know and the dog walks by and everything and all of a sudden boom, that fast. You never know, you never know what’s going to hit you," Bechard said.
Bechard is thankful the incident was not any worse.
“He had his whole mouth over right over the whole thing here. He could have easily just dragged me right into the water," Bechard said.
It only took FWC and a trapper about three hours to catch the gator they believe was behind the attack. The gator was euthanized.