A Florida man investigating a noise outside his home quickly, and painfully, found the source.

Scot Hollingsworth tells clickorlando.com he thought his 17-year-old son was trying to sneak a friend into the house without permission when he heard a noise near the front door at about 9:42 p.m. Saturday. Hollingsworth says he jumped up and opened the front door.

As soon as he got outside, he felt something clamp onto his upper thigh, Hollingsworth tells WESH Channel 2.

“Went outside and didn’t turn the light on and just got a step outside and something grabbed me on the leg, started shaking violently,” said Hollingsworth, who tells WESH he initially thought it was a large dog. He quickly realized it wasn’t a dog.

He estimated the alligator was 6 to 7 feet long, but authorities who later captured it say it was nearly 9 feet long.

“I really didn’t get a good look at it,” Hollingsworth tells WESH. ‘When I saw what it was, I stepped back in the house and closed the door. Looked down and I had a large gash in the side of my leg. I was trying to put pressure on it.”

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports Hollingsworth was taken to a hospital for treatment of his wound. The alligator was euthanized by a trapper. Hollingsworth tells clickorlando that despite the attack, he wishes the alligator could have been spared.

“I worked on a farm growing up and have been out in the wildlife my whole life you know, I love seeing the animals … but not that close, it was a little too close for me,” Hollingsworth said.