A house inspector visiting a home in North Carolina for a routine inspection for potential structural issues or code violations found something much more worrisome.
Dean Brown was in disbelief when he discovered an 8-foot alligator hiding in the attic of a 3-story home in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The code enforcer wandered around the house checking the current process of the construction project.
He made his way up to the third-story attic and began looking around when he made what he initially thought was a normal find.
“I didn’t think nothing of it,” Brown told WECT of when he first noticed what he thought “was a fake, stuffed gator of some sort.”
But upon taking a second glance standing just a few feet away, Brown was startled.
“I started continuing doing my job, then I looked back at him and realized he was moving and breathing,” he recounted noting that the dark space helped contribute to his confusion.
“I second-guessed what he was because he didn’t really move at first. He was kind of asleep, I guess. But once I shined my flashlight on his head, his eyes started to open, and he gave me a wink and let me know ‘I’m alive’.”
Brown immediately backed away slowly taking some photos for evidence and then called one of his co-workers to alert everyone to his shocking discovery, but his colleagues were also in disbelief.
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“Nobody would believe me,” Brown said. “I made phone calls. I told people around me; nobody would believe me.”
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Eventually, one person finally took Brown’s alert seriously and climbed upstairs to inspect the situation when he came face-to-face with the deadly reptile.
The team then took heed to the inspector’s warnings and evacuated the construction site and called animal control which was able to remove the animal and return it to nature.
Everyone was in shock realizing that the squat creature had climbed several flights of stairs to find its hiding spot. Brown believes that the alligator wandered in from a nearby marsh through a door that was accidentally left open over the weekend.
“The builder arrived Monday morning and realized there was mud in the house, wasn’t sure where it was from, but he did call people in to clean and repaint some areas. Then, work continued for a day and a half until I arrived and discovered it,” Brown said.
He’s come across rodents, squirrels, snakes and even a few alligators during his nearly 30-year career in housing and construction, but never inside such a close and elevated space.
“It was an experience I will never forget,” Brown said.
