Veteran shoots 6-foot gator as it lunges at him in Michigan. ‘I heard this hissing.’

A 59-year-old Army veteran sprang to action after he heard a strange sound while collecting fishing bait in Michigan on Saturday.

Derrick Fells was collecting minnows while on vacation in Tuscola County, Michigan, when he heard a hissing sound, Michigan Live reported.

“I heard this hissing sound and I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, and I thought maybe it was a opossum I was going to walk up on,” he said, according to WEYI.

That “opossum” turned out to be a six-foot-long alligator, WDIV reported.

“I started fumbling and scrambling, trying to get my pistol out my pants so fast,” Fells said, according to WBTV. “The gator turned and came at me.”

With his dominant hand in a cast, Fells held the gun in the other and shot the gator from 20 feet away, killing it, WDIV reported.

“It was a shot I was proud of,” Fells said, according to the TV station.

Fells called authorities, who believe the gator came from a neighbor’s property who keeps several other reptiles including tortoises, snakes and two other alligators, Michigan Live reported.

The neighbor reportedly did not know his alligator had gone missing.

“He went, ‘I have three. Here’s one, here’s two, and…oops,’” under sheriff Robert E. Baxter said, according to Michigan Live.

Neighbors were surprised to hear about large reptiles being kept in the area.

“The person that has the pets, they need to take a little more responsibility and think about the community. This is a hiking place, people ride their ATVs through here, people walk in the mornings,” neighbor Linda Davis said, according to WEYI.

The alligator was eventually returned to Fells who, with the help of YouTube and his fiancee, learned taxidermy to preserve the gator, WJBK reported.

This story was originally published July 28, 2019 at 3:30 PM.