Having your home broken into by another person is one of the worst things that could happen to you, second only to having it broken into by an alligator.
And that's what happened to one Florida woman who went into her kitchen and was confronted by an enormous 11ft reptile slithering along the floor.
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After hearing a bang, Mary Wischhusen crept downstairs to investigate - but instead of finding a masked thief rooting through her drawers, she came face to face with a scaly beast hissing with its mouth wide open.
Terrified, she phoned Clearwater Police Department for help, who attended the scene along with an animal trapper.
Terrifying photographs have now been released, showing how the alligator broke through a glass window and knocked over furniture in the kitchen.
Speaking to Fox News, Ms Wischhusen said: "I heard this huge, monstrous crash, like the whole roof was falling in on the side of my house.
"I headed for the kitchen and as I got to the door of the kitchen, I had this beautiful face staring at me as though he belonged there. This 10ft gator was having a marvellous time sitting in my kitchen."
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She added: "I decided I wasn't staying there, so I went back to my bedroom and closed the door and called the police. I was hyperventilating a little, so what I did was I went on the computer and played games to settle down.
"He could have come right after me - I'm very happy he did not come after me."
But the intruder did leave a bit of a mess, smashing a few bottles of her 'good' wine which was 'all over' Ms Wischhusen's floor.
Yet despite all that, she didn't let the traumatic experience get to her.
She said: "I think after all these years, if you've been a nurse this long, you've seen everything. He was just added to the book that I need to write. It's just amazing."
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Clearwater Police Department communications officer Joelle Castelli said the animal was behaving in an 'aggressive manner'.
He said: "It's unusual for a gator to break in like this. It was a dangerous situation.
"It was hissing in an aggressive manner. We did attend with an animal trapper who secured the animal and took it away.
"It was first spotted acting aggressively in the street by a newspaper seller. She heard a loud bang and phoned 911.
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"The homeowner then phoned because she thought there was an intruder. She ran downstairs and found an alligator in her kitchen."
The break-in happened at around 3.45am on Friday (31 May).
On this occasion, the animal trapper successfully managed to safely secure the alligator by taping its mouth shut.
It was taken away and will be released back into the wild.
Featured Image Credit: SWNSTopics: US News, Weird, Animals