(CNN) A Florida woman woke up in the middle of the night to an unfamiliar sound and when she turned on the lights, she said she got the shock of a lifetime.

Kerri Kibbe said when she looked outside and turned on the patio light, she learned that the sound she'd heard through her bedroom window early Saturday morning was a 7-foot-alligator. And it was staring right at her.

7-foot alligator discovered in Florida woman's swimming pool.

"It was just so unnatural," Kibbe told CNN." I was worried that if it did get out, I wouldn't know if it was actually really gone."

With her children fast asleep, Kibbe waited a couple of hours before calling the police. She told authorities over the phone she thought it had a length of about 3 feet or 4 feet but once an officer came to her home he estimated it was closer to 6 feet, she said.

A private trapper was sent to her Port Charlotte home shortly after.

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