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A woman from South Carolina got the shock of her life last week when she nearly stepped on a 12-foot alligator that had crawled up to her front door.

Diana Andrews from Hilton Head Island told WSAV-TV that she was taking her family's dog out for a walk around 5:50am last Friday when she stumbled across the 1,000-pound reptile. She had gotten as close as two feet to the creature before she noticed the monstrous pest.

"I was terrified, I was screaming and shaking, at the same time, trying to find the phone to call security," Andrews told WSAV.

She said she immediately pulled her small dog back to save him from the snapping jaws of the giant alligator. Afterwards she called for her husband, Arthur Andrews, who told the New York Daily News he tried shooing the alligator by splashing water on the giant creature. That, however, didn't work as he had hoped.

"I ran back in the house!" he told the Daily News.

Diana phoned the gated community's security, hoping for someone to come help get the terrifying carnivore off her yard.

"I figured they would just come and take it away, but they said it was too big and that I needed to call a professional," she said, according to WSAV.

The Andrews waited for three hours before someone from Critter Management Inc. arrived to tie up the gator. But because the alligator was so big, the workers had to call for backup.

After back up arrived, animal control workers used several ropes to tie up the gator before carting it off. According to the Daily News, an employee from Critter Management Inc. said that the gator had to be euthanized under South Carolina law.

The Andrews say they regularly see alligators in the lagoon behind their house, but that the reptiles rarely go past the bank.

"This is mating season and they do tend to wander, and they can travel a pretty significant distance in the course of one evening," Arthur said. "They were here before we were, so there's really nothing we can do," he said.

According to North Carolina's Department of Natural Resources, the state euthanizes around 250 to 300 problematic alligators. Wild alligators are found in the most southern tip of Texas to the most northeastern part of North Carolina, and can grow up to 16 feet in length.