An Alligator Walked Through a North Carolina Bagel Shop's Back Door and Straight to the Counter

SOUTHPORT, N.C., Nov. 5, 2026 — The back door at Bagel Dock Express was open last Thursday afternoon. An alligator took that as an invitation.

Security cameras caught the 3-foot gator walking in from outside, cutting through the kitchen and the stockroom and heading for the front of the shop like it had been there before, The Charlotte Observer reported. "Just walked in like he knew where to go," the shop wrote on social media.

Owner Jesse Driscoll was nearby the whole time, but he was busy with workers putting in a new oven. The shop was closed to customers. He found out he had a visitor when he came around a corner and saw it waiting at the front counter.

The video shows Driscoll stop cold, hop backward across the lobby and grab a chair. Then he called 911. The alligator, which also looked surprised, started backing away in search of an exit.

"It's just so far out of the ordinary for a bagel shop," Driscoll told WWAY. "You can see lots of things. People coming in. Friends coming in to say hi. But, never in a million years did I think I'd see an alligator. It was a shock to see me as I was him."

Southport police called in an animal protective services officer, who caught the gator and took it to a wild area. Nobody was hurt, though the reptile reportedly did not enjoy the ride.

Alligators are native to this stretch of the North Carolina coast, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, and Southport police are used to strange gator calls. The shop took the whole thing in stride. "Apparently, word of our fresh bagels has made its way into the swamp!" it posted.