An 84-year-old Florida woman was savagely attacked by and alligator, which took a chunk out of her leg as she walked her dog in Southwest Florida, officials said.
“It was like a torpedo. … I didn’t have time to think,” the victim, Dolores Boppel, told NBC News.
The attack occurred on Thursday at around 7 p.m. as Boppel walked her dog by a pond in the North Fort Myers area.
When she saw the seven-foot, three-inch gator looking at her, she quickly tossed her small dog up in the air before the gator chomped on her leg, according to NBC News.
Boppel also sustained injuries to her hand and arm, OBradley Johnson, spokesperson for the Florida wildlife commission, told The Post.
The octogenarian was taken to a local hospital and Johnson said she is in “stable condition” and “doing well.”
The pooch was unharmed.
After the alligator was trapped, it was removed, another spokesperson said in an email.
At seven-foot, three inches, the alligator was “relatively average” Johnson said.
From 1948 through 2022, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recorded over 450 alligator bites on people in the state, 30 of which were fatal, ClickOrlando.com reported.
In June, bodycam footage surfaced that showed the grisly aftermath of a September 2023 deadly alligator attack that killed a homeless Florida grandmother in Largo, a small community four miles south of Clearwater.
The same month, a homeless man — who didn’t heed the advice of a local — lost half his arm during a 2 a.m. swim in Seminole County’s Lake Monroe.
Boppel didn’t answer a call for comment and her voicemail was full.
