It’s been a little while since we’ve heard any wild Florida news. Let’s check in to see how they’re doing.
Brandon Hatfield somehow gained access into a huge crocodile exhibit at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and spent a whopping four hours inside the restricted area. (RELATED: Americans Have Already Raised Over $50,000 For The Waffle House Hero)
Action News Jacksonville reported the following:
Surveillance cameras captured video of Hatfield repeatedly jumping into the pit from a 20-foot roof. Video also shows him swimming around the pond with the crocodiles…
Several lamps and signs were broken, and a statue in the middle of the crocodile pit — that you can only get to by swimming — was toppled.
Brueggen said they found a pair of shorts and a rubber “Crocs” shoe floating in the pit and thought it might be a prank.
Minutes later, they found “a lot” of blood at the top of the zipline platform — overlooking the crocodiles.
Here’s the surveillance footage:
#BREAKING: #FloridaMan bitten after breaking into crocodile exhibit featuring 3, 12ft long nile crocodiles.
Staff found shorts, crocs, and blood at the scene, and called the cops.
Man was found in a nearby neighborhood in boxers, bloodied. @ActionNewsJax @WOKVNews pic.twitter.com/HWluDt38jT
— Ryan Nelson (@RyanANJax) November 6, 2018
According to a police officer familiar with the situation, Hatfield had no idea that a crocodile would try to eat him until one latched onto his foot and bit down. He somehow fought the crocodile off and managed to crawl away. He was seen wandering around a neighborhood shortly thereafter, bloodied and in his boxers.
The neighbors called 911 on Hatfield, who was “doing a slow, creeping crawl,” across their lawn.
“There’s a man with only gym shorts crawling,” the neighbor told 911. “He’s just crawling with his shorts halfway down his [butt] and no other clothes.”
And that’s where the cops found him.
This is a prior mugshot of Brandon Hatfield, the man St. Augustine police say jumped into a pit of crocodiles after breaking into the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.
Video shows at least one crocodile attacking him: https://t.co/jja2MoSPG0 pic.twitter.com/QmkeOQgo1y
— ActionNewsJax (@ActionNewsJax) November 6, 2018
He was transported to Flagler Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. He was also charged with burglary, criminal mischief with more than $5,000 in damage and violation of probation, and will be taken to jail when he’s deemed healthy enough.
Park Director John Brueggen suspects Hatfield was “on some sort of drugs,” as nobody has ever attempted to jump into a croc exhibit in the park’s nearly 125 years in business. But this has not been confirmed by officials.
Florida is a wild, wild place.