A bald eagle dropping a full-grown cat through a moving car’s windshield sounds like something from a Looney Tunes cartoon. However, one North Carolina driver had to live it stone-cold sober on a Wednesday morning.
She was cruising along U.S. Route 74, near the edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, when her day veered straight into folklore. The unidentified woman sounded understandably rattled when she called 911, as a recording later shared by the Associated Press showed.
“You may not believe me, but I just had a bald eagle drop a cat through my windshield,” she told the dispatcher. “It absolutely shattered my windshield.”
The dispatcher didn’t blink. “OK. I do believe you, honestly,” she said, then let out a laugh that only someone working emergency calls in Appalachia could deliver. Another witness apparently watched the drop, telling the driver it was “the craziest thing” he’d ever seen.
A driver called 911 in North Carolina, claiming a bald eagle dropped a cat through their windshield on US-74 early Wednesday morning, shattering the glass. The driver told the dispatcher that a witness called it “the craziest thing” they had ever seen. “Okay, you may not believe me, but I just had a bald eagle drop a cat through my windshield.” #news #northcarolina #911call #animals #abcnews
Driver Tells 911 a Bald Eagle Just Threw a Cat Into His Windshield
Once the dispatcher sent Highway Patrol, she asked the question no one wants to ask but must. “Is the cat still alive?” The driver confirmed it wasn’t, adding that the animal had ended up on the roadside, not in her lap. “I have to ask just to make sure,” the dispatcher said.
Why a bald eagle would drop a cat mid-flight is something state wildlife officials actually have answers for. Kendrick Weeks, who oversees the Western Wildlife Diversity Program for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, told AP that the bird could have been carrying roadkill.
“But they can take animals the size of a cat,” he said. Live cats are harder to handle, but scavenging is common. Eagles also drop prey when the grip slips, when something is too heavy, or when another raptor starts harassing them.
Bald eagles are native to North Carolina, and their numbers have been climbing. Weeks noted that the state now has more than 200 nesting pairs, with adults weighing up to 13.5 pounds and stretching wingspans up to 7 feet. Large enough to make mistakes dramatic.
Anyone who’s driven through the mountains knows the wildlife there plays by its own rules. Still, having a national symbol fling a cat through your windshield sits in a category of its own. It’s absurd, terrifying, and somehow very fitting for North Carolina.
The post North Carolina Driver Says a Bald Eagle Dropped a Cat Through Her Windshield appeared first on VICE.
