Watch: Family finds alligator in their Florida pool

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFTS/CNN) – There’s nothing like returning home and finding an alligator in your swimming pool.

The reptile was enjoying a leisurely swim when the Rivera family found him.

"He was crawling on the bottom going from one corner to the other," said Carlos Rivera.

The small gator wasn’t causing too much trouble, still, the family was hoping it wouldn’t stay too long.

"We saw him walking around for a while,” daughter Veronica Rivera said. “We were wondering who we should call.”

State wildlife officials will dispatch a trapper if an alligator is a nuisance, but it must be at least 4 feet in length and pose a threat to people, pets or property. This one wasn’t that big.

Eventually, the gator got out of the pool on its own but wouldn’t leave the yard.

The family attempted to wrangle it themselves, but that didn’t go well.

“We tried to grab him and turn into a bit of a fiasco,” Carlos Rivera said. The slippery reptile wasn’t cooperative.

But, with the help of a friend, they were able to get the gator safely in a garbage bin and later released it into a pond.