North Carolina code enforcement official Dean Brown was in for a big surprise yesterday when he went up into the attic of a home he was inspecting.

Of all the issues he could have imagined coming across in the under-construction home, I don't think an 8-foot-alligator was on his list. Especially not in an attic!

Brown told WECT how he found the gator, saying,

I go in, start looking around, it's three stories to get to the attic. And when I walk up to the attic, I didn't think nothing of it, 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. So, I chose to back away and take some pictures and call a co-worker and let him know. 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.

They aren't sure how the gator got in, but their best guess is that construction workers left a door to the home open over the weekend. The builder recalled seeing mud in the house when he got to the job site on Monday, but after cleaning it up, he didn't think anything else of it.

Apparently, while the crew was away the alligator climbed the two staircases up to the attic, where he lived for at least a few days before Brown came across him.

Brown said in all his years of work he's never come across something quite like this in a home,

You'll see nothing major, I have seen squirrels, of course, small rodents. Squirrels, probably the biggest ones I've seen in the attic. I have seen a gator that was in the yard, kind of sunbathing. Back in the 90s. You know, I really didn't think much of that.

But this experience is one he says he'll remember for a long time.

Thankfully no one was hurt, and animal control was able to safely relocate the alligator.