A three-foot alligator wandered into a bagel shop in Southport, North Carolina, giving the owner an unexpected fright. The visit was caught on surveillance video.
The alligator slipped through an open back door at Bagel Dock Express on Oct. 29, then moved through the kitchen toward the counter. Owner Jesse Driscoll spotted it and quickly backed away before calling 911.
The shop was closed to customers. Driscoll told WWAY News he had been distracted by workers installing a new oven when the reptile appeared.
“It’s just so far out of the ordinary for a bagel shop,” he said. He was used to seeing familiar customers come through the door, but an alligator was not something he expected.
Southport police and Animal Protective Services responded and removed the animal. In a Facebook post, the police department said officers worked with Animal Protective Services Officer Ward to capture and relocate it.
The shop took a lighthearted approach to the visit in its own Facebook post, joking that its fresh bagels had attracted a customer from the swamp. The alligator was safely escorted out, the post said, and no one was hurt.
It wasn’t the city’s first unusual alligator call this year. In April, officers helped remove a 12-foot alligator from a residential property, as well as another found beneath a car at a bank drive-through.
