A US couple were stunned to find an alligator in the swimming pool of a rental home during a vacation at Carolina Beach in North Carolina.

Footage captured on May 11 shows a policeman and a wildlife officer removing a five-foot-long alligator from the pool.

According to the filmer, Eric Blau, he and his wife woke up to find the alligator floating in the pool. ''It was scary to step outside and see a gator in the pool moving around and looking at us from a few feet away,'' he said.

The couple then called the police who sent an officer to the scene along with a wildlife control staffer to pull the alligator from the pool.

Eric Blau later told Newsflare: ''The responding police officers were amused and joking about the five-foot alligator in the pool.

''Wildlife control arrived and wrangled the alligator out of the pool, wrapped its jaws in tape and put it in a cage in the back of a truck.

''This was not our first wildlife experience with a vacation rental.

''A couple of years ago, my wife and kids had a bat show up in a bedroom where they were sleeping in the middle of the night.''

My wife and I were on vacation at Carolina Beach, North Carolina. My wife woke up and went outside to leave to pick up breakfast and we saw an alligator floating in the pool. We called the police and wildlife control arrived and removed the alligator, which this video shows.