WSVN55%
‘He just looked so mean’: Palm Bay woman credits security alert with preventing encounter with 7-foot gator outside home 85%
By Rubén Rosario52%
7/21/2026, 12:28:07 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 21 faulty reasoning types, including Post Hoc (False Cause), Availability Heuristic, and Confirmation Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 45.1% saturation with 173 hits. Analysis detected 1,052 faulty-reasoning hits from 384 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 77.1% and a BS Rank of 85% (3,060 of 19,233 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 84.10% of the article peer group.
PALM BAY, Fla.
(WSVN) — A gator invader gave a big scare to a Florida family who found the large reptile stretched out on the front porch, but the homeowner said her security alert came just in time, thankfully avoiding a wild wake-up call.
The unsettling overnight encounter between Sierra Wynn’s family and a 7-foot, 6-inch alligator went down Friday morning in Brevard County.
Wynn said the unwelcome visitor was lounging next to the front door of her home off Malabar Road in Palm Bay, way too close for comfort.
“I thought at one point he was gonna come through the window,” she said.
Wynn said her home security camera alerted her and her loved ones to an animal in the yard just before 4 a.m.
The footage shows the massive gator patrolling the family’s front porch.
“His tail was bouncing against the door and bouncing against the house and stuff, and it was such deep guttural hiss and growl, and he just looked so mean, I thought he was going to come through the window,” said Wynn.
With surveillance cameras still rolling, Wynn watched from inside her home as Palm Bay Police and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission worked to wrangle the uninvited guest.
“We were scared, terrified.
At one point, when he was getting kind of agitated, with the flashlight in his eye, he actually looked right up at me in his eyes, and he started opening up his mouth, and he was growling and hissing,” she said.
Wynn says that alert may have made all the difference, because otherwise, they wouldn’t have known there was something waiting for them just steps away from their doorbell.
“If we didn’t have the cameras and the features where we get notifications that animals are in your yard, you know, who knows what would have happened?”
she said.
“If I would have opened the garage to let the dog out, if I would have come through the front door, I wouldn’t have known.”
Gators are no stranger to residents of the Sunshine State.
Experts advise those who find themselves in Wynn’s situation to call police.
They will contact FWC to safely remove the animal.
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.