Odd rescue mounted after alligator gets soccer ball stuck in mouth, NC cops say

An alligator somehow managed to get a soccer ball stuck in its mouth while wandering a golf course in eastern North Carolina, according to police.

It happened Sunday, May 25, at the Sea Trail Golf Resort in Sunset Beach, and photos shared on Facebook show the predicament looked as goofy as it sounds.

Sunset Beach police assumed the ball was “lodged in its mouth” and mounted an intervention aimed at removing it before the alligator starved to death.

“Fortunately, before any action was needed, the gator gave a roll in the water and dislodged the ball on its own,” police said in a May 25 Facebook post. “It swam away unharmed, though we can’t say the same for the soccer ball which sustained fatal injuries.”

Details of how police planned to pry a soccer ball out of an alligator’s mouth were not released.

The fact the alligator dislodged the ball with ease raised questions, including the possibility it was playing with the ball in that same macabre way alligators are known to play with their food.

Soccer balls average 27 to 28 inches in circumference and alligators are known to cram much larger things in their mouths.

Alligators are native to Sunset Beach, about a 180-mile drive southeast from Raleigh, and they are commonly found in the ponds on golf courses.

In this case, the pond was on the 18-hole Maples Course, which closed May 19 for several months of renovations.

This story was originally published May 26, 2025 at 5:25 AM with the headline "Odd rescue mounted after alligator gets soccer ball stuck in mouth, NC cops say."