Watch A Home Inspector Stumble Upon A Live Alligator In An Attic…Yes, An Alligator!

When you imagine an attic in a home, you might picture old boxes of holiday decorations, forgotten picture books, clothes that were never donated, and perhaps a mouse scurrying around. 

A home inspector in North Carolina saw more than he bargained for when performing a routine inspection. Dean Brown, a New Hanover County employee, entered the attic of the three-story building while examining a house that was being built in Wilmington’s Echo Farms neighborhood.

See the Gator in the Attic for Yourself!

Typically, a home inspection can reveal any structural problems or code violations, but in this instance, it also revealed a live gator in the attic. Brown said he entered the attic after climbing three stories and everything was going as planned. 

“I turned the corner, I’m looking around at the work, and I noticed what I thought was a fake, stuffed gator of some sort. And then I started continuing doing my job, then I looked back at him and realized he was moving and breathing.” Brown said. 

Although this is a terrifying situation, one has to wonder how an alligator got all the way up to the attic in this home. Brown says he started to slowly back away, all while taking photos.

He made sure to reach out to a co-worker so someone knew what he encountered. 

Brown goes on to say, “We made sure that the place was safe and evacuated people, there were workers that were there on site, asked them to leave for their safety. And then we called sure for animal control.”

Mannequin Challenge Level 1000

Brown mentions that the animal didn’t move at first. He thought it was fake until he did the following. “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 claims to have never seen something like this in an attic in the little over a year he has been evaluating houses. Though it is his third contact with a gator overall, this is his first inside. 

Nobody knows how the alligator entered the attic, but according to Brown, he believes that during the weekend, a door was left unlocked, allowing the gator to sneak inside before ascending the built-in steps to the attic. The gator, according to animal control, was around eight feet long.

This wasn’t the first time Brown has seen a critter during an inspection. “You’ll see nothing major, I have seen squirrels, of course, small rodents. Squirrels are probably the biggest ones I’ve seen in the attic. I have seen a gator that was in the yard, kind of sunbathing,” He says.