Police remove gator from pool in North Carolina town: Watch video of 'arrest'

Authorities in a North Carolina town arrested an unlikely offender from a community swimming pool.

An alligator was spotted swimming in the pool early morning around 6:30 a.m. last Friday by workers at a community pool in Holly Ridge, North Carolina, the Holly Ridge Police Department said.

Holly Ridge Police Department was contacted to remove the unexpected intruder.

Video footage from the scene of the arrest shows an officer pulling the gator from the pool from its tail and attempting to lock it down by holding its snout. However, the gator snaps at the officer every time he tries. Eventually another officer comes to help and the two are able to trap the wily reptile in a pool cleaning net.

'Protecting the community'

The gator was retrieved from the pool safely and was released it into one of the ponds across the street from the community center, police said.

Holly Ridge Councilman Joshua Patti, in a post on Facebook, lauded the Officer Howard of the Holly Ridge Police Department for "protecting the community from all sorts of things."

American alligators occur naturally in North Carolina and can be spotted in bay lakes, rivers, creeks, marshes, swamps and ponds, according to North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. They are also common in some coastal areas of the state. Holly Ridge is located close to the North Carolina coast and is about 11 miles from North Topsail Beach.

"Alligators are common to our area," Holly Ridge Police Chief Michael Sorg told USA TODAY. "They usually stay out of the way, but development has pushed them into areas that they previously didn’t live. This development is near a state park with lowlands, and the development has large lakes/ponds, so the alligators naturally are attracted."

Live updates:Carolinas bracing for second landfall from Tropical Storm Debby

Tropical storm Debby

Holly Ridge, which is located close to the coast and is about 11 miles from North Top Sail Beach, is bracing for Tropical Storm Debby and the local government has declared a state of emergency in the area.

On Wednesday, Debby strengthened along the Atlantic coast with millions in the Carolinas bracing for the system to make a second landfall, further inundating rain-soaked communities and extending widespread flooding through the mid-Atlantic region.

Debby, which forecasters say could be the wettest landfalling hurricane ever, has drenched Florida and South Carolina in over a foot of rain, while Georgia has seen over 10 inches. The rain and flash floods forced evacuations, overwhelmed drainage systems and breached dams in Georgia and South Carolina.

At least five deaths have been tied to the storm.

After pushing off the coast of Georgia on Tuesday, Debby is projected to strengthen before moving ashore along the central coast of South Carolina on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Debby could dump an additional 3 to 9 inches of rainfall − and local amounts could range as high as 25 inches in South Carolina and 15 inches in North Carolina through Friday.

Contributing: Christopher Cann, Doyle Rice, Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.