Alligator knocks on NC woman’s front door at 1 am. ‘We surprised each other’
An alligator with a sense of humor knocked on a North Carolina woman’s front door in the middle of the night, and the rascal got a rather rude response.
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It happened around 1 a.m. Friday, Oct. 9, in Leland, as Rasa Love was chatting with a newly arrived houseguest from out of town.
“We heard a big thump at the door. I have a cat and I thought it was, maybe, the cat. But it was pretty loud and the dog started barking,” Love told The Charlotte Observer.
“I turned on the (porch) light, opened the door and looked down through the storm door and see this head sitting literally at the threshold. I slammed the door. It’s one thing to have an alligator in the yard, but this one took the time to knock.”
Her houseguest couldn’t resist asking for an explanation, and was told: “It’s an alligator.”
“She didn’t believe me and opened the door. I heard her say ‘oh my,’ then she slammed the door – again,” Love says.
That led to an unusual 911 call, with Love asking: “Somebody get this alligator off my porch. It’s huge, like a dinosaur.”
Leland police say they arrived at the 1100 block of Spring Glen Court to find an 8-foot alligator on the porch. “Officers contacted wildlife officials, who assisted our officers in removing the alligator and relocating it to a nearby open waterway,” police said in an email to The Charlotte Observer.
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Love went to bed around 2 a.m., while police were still waiting for the trapper. The alligator had begun moving around the yard by then, she says.
“I considered myself lucky to have seen this gorgeous animal. But I was stupefied that it was right at the threshold, with just a piece of glass separating us,” Love says. “I’m not sure what the alligator’s expression was, but I guess we surprised each other.”
Southeastern North Carolina is the northernmost range for the American alligator, which is a federally protected species.
Porches are an unlikely place to find one in the state, but it’s possible the alligator smelled something alluring, according to Alicia D. Wassmer, an alligator biologist for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
“Like other wildlife, alligators have a very keen sense of smell and will be attracted to scents left by pets, pet food, or other wild animals that may have been attracted to the smell of pet food,” Wassmer told The Charlotte Observer.
“An alternative theory … is that it simply went the wrong way. Alligators are pretty short – imagine how difficult it could be to navigate around human structures from the perspective of just a few inches above the ground! It’s entirely possible that the alligator was just trying to take what it perceived to be the shortest path around the house.”
Only N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission employees or a “licensed agent” are allowed to handle out-of-place alligators in North Carolina, the state says. The N.C. Wildlife Helpline is 866-318-2401 and is staffed Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. through 5 p.m.
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For details on alligator safety, visit Gatorwise.org.
Leland is about a 140-mile drive southeast from downtown Raleigh.
This story was originally published October 12, 2026 at 7:37 AM.
