Why is Laravel throwing a "ErrorException (E_NOTICE) Trying to get property of non-object" on a valid property

[On Laravel 5.5, php 7, 32Bit Ubuntu]

I have a simple model that has the following method:

static function loop()
{       
    self::where('loop', 1)->increment('loop_count');    
    $status = self::where('loop',1)->first();
    $looping = $status->loop;       
    var_dump($looping);
    dd($looping);
    return $looping;
}

The value of loop in the database for the record in question is 1.

var_dump and dd returns as expected:

int(1)
1

However if I just let the function return normally I get

ErrorException (E_NOTICE)
Trying to get property of non-object

With the debugger hilighting this line:

$looping = $status->loop;

as the offending code.

What gives?

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