This guy has brought a whole new meaning to the term “swim with the fishies,” and everybody is talking about it.
Thirty-seven-year-old David Weaver had quite the weekend in Toronto recently. According to authorities, the Nelson, B.C. native started his night out at Medieval Times, where he assaulted a 34-year-old man and smashed in two glass doors after he was asked to leave the show for being rowdy.
But that was just the beginning of the night’s shenanigans.
Weaver then went on to Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada, where he bought a ticket, ripped off all his clothes, climbed over the security barrier, and jumped into the water to swim with the sharks.
Naked.
The entire incident was caught on video by fellow attendees; luckily for the man the sharks seemed to have very little interest in a midnight snack and they largely ignored him as he paddled around.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Weaver then took a “full frontal,” backwards dive off the rocks as onlookers cheered. Eventually he climbed out, grabbed some clothing from a person assumed to be his girlfriend, used the towels employees gave him to dry off, and ignored security’s demands that he stay on site until police arrived.
“Once he got his clothes back on, he and his girlfriend walked right out of the aquarium despite security staff yelling at him to wait for police and get back in this small holding room they wanted to keep him in,” Derek Marlow, who saw the entire thing, told The Toronto Star.
“The guy seemed totally relaxed and there were sharks, like, everywhere,” visitor Erin Acland told CBC Toronto. “He appeared to be totally nude and, like, laughing. I don’t know what would possess someone to do that. It’s totally insane to me. I was scared I was going to witness the death of this guy.”
Weaver certainly escaped death, but authorities are now looking for him.
“Further investigation revealed the man involved in both incidents was the same person,” Toronto police said in a press release. “Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada is co-operating with authorities and is willing to press all appropriate charges once the individual has been apprehended.”
It kind of goes without saying, but Weaver is pretty darned lucky that no harm came from the stunt. He didn’t just put himself at risk, but he also put staff and the animals themselves, including sharks, green sea turtles, green moray eels, and other tropical fish living in the tank, in a dangerous situation.
“It’s very dangerous for both the individual as well as our animals,” aquarium general manager Peter Doyle told CBC Toronto. “An animal’s health and welfare is paramount to what we do so… we plan to press charges to the full extent of the law.”
As another famous saying goes, don’t try this at home kids.