A driver from North Carolina was left dumbfounded after a cat fell from the sky and crashed through her windshield.
The feline was apparently dropped by a bald eagle that was soaring over US-74 in Swain County in the far western part of the state around 8 am on Wednesday.
"You may not believe me, but I just had a bald eagle drop a cat through my windshield,” the stunned driver said while calling 911. “It absolutely shattered my windshield."
The operator responded by saying, “I do believe you, honestly,” according to a statement from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, seen by ABC 11.
"I had a witness who was like, 'That is the craziest thing I've ever seen," the caller added while reeling from the crash.
They also confirmed that the cat had sadly died and was lying “on the other side of the road.”
However, the driver was not injured and was instead left shaken.
There are now around 316,700 bald eagles in the U.S., according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), as the bird has been considered to be endangered since the 1980s.
That number represents a massive population recovery, which has quadrupled since 2009. Many states no longer consider bald eagles to be endangered.
Banning deadly pesticides, including DDT, and preventing environmental damage were significant factors in allowing the bird’s population to recover.
According to World Population Review, there are about 192 nesting pairs in North Carolina, making the state among the least populous. Meanwhile, Alaska is home to a staggering 30,000 nesting pairs.
The bald eagle has only recently become the country’s national bird, though, due to an oversight in U.S. law. Since the bird is on the country’s seal, lawmakers assumed that it was the official symbol of the United States.
However, it has only had that prestigious status since 2024 when Biden signed it into law.
The birds often make headlines for their quirky behavior, with one bald eagle knocking out a government drone in 2020.
When environmental quality analyst Hunter King was piloting a Phantom 4 Pro Advanced quadcopter drone over Lake Michigan to analyse shoreline erosion, he noticed that his connection to the drone was starting to fade.
In the distance, he saw the drone spiralling towards the ground, with a bald eagle racing away from it.
Two bird watchers confirmed that they saw the eagle attack the object, damaging it enough to cause it to crash out of the sky.
Footage of the incident, obtained by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, revealed that the eagle had torn off one of the drone’s propellers in what is thought to have been “a territorial squabble with the electronic foe.”
The Independent has contacted the North Carolina State Highway Patrol for comment.
