By Associated Press, 04/05/02

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- A woman driving home ran over an alligator, which then bit through her car's bumper and lifted part of the vehicle off the ground.

Stephanie Feola, 43, said she first thought she hit an opossum Wednesday night but she saw the tail of an almost 7-foot alligator under her car.

"The car started shaking and it was lifting the front end up," she said. "I thought it was going to come up through the floor."

Feola put the car into reverse to get away and called police on her cellular phone. The animal was caught and killed by a trapper, said Gary Morse, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Morse said the animal's reaction is often to fight what it thinks is an attacker.

"The alligator doesn't know what's going on," Morse said. "He's got a brain the size of your thumb."