Motorist in North Carolina tells 911: 'I just had a bald eagle drop a cat through my windshield'

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By COREY WILLIAMS
Updated 7:18 PM CST, November 21, 2025

A motorist in western North Carolina escaped injury when the carcass of a cat crashed into the passenger side of her front windshield along a highway near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

In a call to 911, the unidentified driver on U.S. Route 74 in Swain County, near Bryson City, told a dispatcher that a bald eagle dropped the cat. Bryson City is about 65 miles (104 kilometers) southwest of Asheville.

It’s not clear if the feline slipped from the eagle’s talons Wednesday morning or was discarded simply because the big bird didn’t have a taste for it.

“You may not believe me, but I just had a bald eagle drop a cat through my windshield,” the incredulous driver said on the recorded 911 call. “It absolutely shattered my windshield.”



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/bald-eagle-cat-windshield-north-carolina-c3fdb9978ffe5ca347f2008d660adc07

[twodogsbarking]

1. Insurance guy I knew had a claim for a fish through the windshield.

[brakester]

33. I had an adult pheasant

fly into my windshield and shatter it while I was driving at highway speed. It was quite a shock. Lucky it wasn't raining. I had a windy ride home that day, though!

[mdbl]

2. Poor cat.

[niyad]

14. Yes!

[FailureToCommunicate]

3. Geeze. First deer collisions, now...cats? Stay safe out there.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. The car was catapulted.

[Trueblue Texan]

6. You are really bad, Baitball, but you know that, right? LOL!

[Baitball Blogger]

9. .

[GJGCA]

18. 'Twas a catastrophe...

...and felineous assault, to boot...

[Baitball Blogger]

21. Bird must have had the tailwinds in his favor.

[AllaN01Bear]

19. ohh . ahhh.

[HariSeldon]

25. Thanks for the laugh!

[mwooldri]

20. Meee....ow. NT

[BWdem4life]

32. In a catatonic state when it hit

Oh, the felinity!

[ms liberty]

5. Saw this on local news yesterday. The poor kitty was dead when it landed

The driver checked, he said he would have saved it if he could.

[tavernier]

34. Was he certain?

Did they do a scan?

[ms liberty]

36. I hope you're joking.

If not, look at the hole in the windshield.

[tavernier]

37. Ummm...

Cat Scan.

[ms liberty]

38. Yea, I missed it.

[rurallib]

7. Surprising that person didn't have a heart attack

I think I would have.

[ratchiweenie]

40. At the very least, I'm sure I would have wrecked my car.

[IronLionZion]

8. It seems personal. What did they do to offend that eagle?

[mwooldri]

22. Appeared the cat distribution system malfunctioned. :( NT

[Botany]

10. A few years ago I saw a red tailed hawk fly across the freeway about 10 to 20 feet up with a cat in its talons

I assume the cat was out hunting and became the hunted one. I don’t think it worked out well for the
cat.

[area51]

11. Definitely news of the weird.

[travelingthrulife]

12. So it's the eagles eating the cats and dogs. Deport all eagles!

[allegorical oracle]

13. Same event nearly happened to me a few years ago. Was traveling at sunrise on I-75, when I

saw that a struggling young eagle was on a collision course with my car. Traffic was light enough that I could stop. The eagle was carrying the biggest red hen I've ever seen.

The chicken was dragged across my hood and the eagle's left wing-tip brushed my windshield. No traffic was to my left, and the eagle fortunately gained altitude.

As perfect as they are, our raptor friends sometimes overestimate their skill level.

[S/V Loner]

15. It might have been too heavy as...

Bald Eagles can only carry about 4 lbs.

[NickB79]

16. Another reason cats should be indoors only

My cats get to chatter at the patio door while the chickadees and cardinals feast in the feeders.

There's also a certain irony in the fact that the most destructive bird killing species introduced to North America was itself killed by a bird.

[Lifeafter70]

31. We built a large catio for my son's cats

They love it

[NNadir]

17. When we adopted our cats, the shelter authorizing our adoption made us sign a document that our cats would be "indoors."

Attacks by predatory birds was listed as a reason, along with being killed by cars, for doing so.

In this case, both seem to have been involved.

We adopted a mother cat and her son. The mother, who apparently came from a shelter after having been abandoned or run outside in heat in an urban area, has no interest in going outside ever again

Her son, by contrast, is interested in doing so and we have to actively restrain him from it.

[Martin68]

24. When we moved to rural Virginia we has an outdoor cat, and he left a path of destruction in his wake, killing birds,

chipmunks, flying squirrels, shrews, and lizards. Twice we came home to a live bird flying around the house that he brought in through the cat door (probably a gift for us to play with). Since then, all our cats have been indoor only. Besides cars and large bird attacks, outdoor cats are exposed to diseases and parasites from other cats and animals, as well as coyotes.

[Zambero]

26. Our semi-feral fearless resident badass Manx once did a number on a great horned owl

The cat had a characteristic hop that might have passed him off as a rabbit to the owl. He was attacked at dust and despite talon wounds he dispatched the owl and made a meal out of him. By morning there wasn't much left of it.

[Martin68]

27. That's amazing! Great horned owls are awesome predators. I'm amazed a cat could win a fight like that.

[generalbetrayus]

23. I used to feed squirrels on the roof of my garage which is accessible outside my bedroom window. Not long after

I started doing that, I saw something swoop down out of the sky at a squirrel just outside my window. The squirrel did not react, but the raptor must have seen me at the window because it swooped up again just as it reached the squirrel without grabbing the squirrel.

[Bayard]

28. Dang--that must have woke her up

I had a turkey fly into my windshield in Calif. I was coming down the mountain, and it just burst up out of the brush. The guy behind me pulled over behind me. He had 4 or 5 kids in his truck. He asked--Are you going to keep that? I said, hell no! He threw it in the back of his truck and drove off.

[not fooled]

29. Did he have wrinkly skin and a raspy voice?

The Bob K jokes are obvious here.

[Bayard]

30. The turkey or the man?

[Sneederbunk]

35. Bald Eagle preservationists vs cat lovers.