According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, a report was received around 8 am on Friday morning regarding the 4- to 5-foot reptile.

Officers from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the site and a contracted nuisance alligator trapper was dispatched.

Rodney Withers, part of the construction team and who was first to spot the gator, said: “This is the first time I actually came up close and personal. Some miraculously way, something tells me to look in his (colleague’s) direction.

“I look in his direction. He is on the back of his truck and the gator is here on the ground and it’s within 4 to 5 feet of him.”

The gator tried to hide behind a wall but got stuck.

“He got trapped,” Withers said. “I ended up assisting Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the trapper to be able to lift him up.”

“It’s fun. A good Friday, I call it,” he added.

No one was injured and the alligator was safely removed and taken by a trapper for the Statewide Nuisance alligator Program.

It’s illegal in Florida to relocate a nuisance gator to another spot in the wild so the gator must be killed or put into captivity. The reason they can’t be released elsewhere is because they tend to return to their capture site.