20-year old Jacob Pursiful, a wannabe influencer with 1,184 followers on TikTok, jumped into the alligator enclosure at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and proceeded to imitate Steve Irwin for clicks.
Pusiful walked up to the pond's edge where the alligators were in the water, and then used a fake Australian accent to imitate Steve Irwin.
"Crikey, mate, this is insane, let's get a closer look, shall we, just to see how it is," Pursifull said while recording the reptiles. "We have never been this close to the alligator, the crocodile, guys, crikey, look how big that bugger is."
A woman can be heard begging with him to get out of the enclosure, to which he responded,
"Another wild Karen. Crikey," he yells.
The woman called back,
"It's very dangerous. Please come out."
Apparently, the alligators were as shocked by his stupidity as the crowd because the man survived without injury.
Pursiful continued his string of stupid ideas by actually posting the video to several social media sites, where it succeeded in going viral, leading police right to him.
"We are thankful to hear that the individuals involved in illegally entering one of our animal habitats recently have been arrested and are facing charges for their dangerous actions," a spokesman for Busch Gardens said. "The safety and well-being of our guests, ambassadors, and animals is a top priority, and we are very grateful to law enforcement, particularly the Tampa Police Department and their law enforcement partners, for their swift action."
Pursiful and two of his buddies had apparently snuck into the park, and in addition they had stolen snacks there as well.
He faces trespassing and burglary charges. If convicted, I guess he'll be saying "see you later" to his friends and family.
Here is a link to the whole TikTok video.