Yahoo Movies ‘Horror movie’: Watch a fisherman get chased by a large alligator in Florida
Alligator appearances have a way of ruining fishing trips, as one Florida man recently found out.
Last Saturday morning, Tommy Lee — who posts his outdoors outings on a YouTube channel called “Chum Dumpster” — showed his followers a terrifying encounter somewhere in the Everglades.
Lee’s GoPro video starts with a shot of his blue rod in the fairly calm water reeling something in. Soon, around the 20-second mark, you hear a large splashing sound; to the right, a shadow appears.
An alligator’s head comes into view at first, then the whole body as it emerges from the water and climbs rather hastily ashore.
“Oh Jesus Christ, gotta be careful here!” Lee says, backing up.
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The alligator then starts walking through the brush following after him.
At one point, the man seems to stumble on the path and comes face to face with the beast just mere feet away.
A commenter wrote that the encounter looked to be made in Hollywood and thought he should have gotten out of there faster than he did.
“I felt like I was watching a horror movie and screaming, “NO YOU FOOL, DON”T GO BACK! RUN!”
Another admired his bravery: “This is the guy you want with you if you ever encounter a deadly predator in the wild.”
Lee ultimately decides to pack it in for the day.
“Well, that puts an end to my tarpon fishing,” he says out of breath. “Wow. Get back!”
The camera pans to the the thick grass — where the gator continues to lurk.
“Oh my God.”
Eventually, the reptile turns around, its large tail dragging along the ground.
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Why the man pivots and goes back after the animal once it retreats is unclear.
“Hey, hey buddy!” he says as it moves away back toward the shoreline.
The video ends with a splash as the gator returns to the water.
“And I am out of here,” Lee says, still breathless. “Screw that.”
The video, entitled, “Chased by an alligator!,” was widely shared, receiving over 1.2 million views as of Monday.
The unwanted companion “stalked me then chased me,” he told content distributor Viral Hog, to whom the outdoorsman sold the rights. “The gator appeared much larger and closer in person. It got within 10 feet of me.”
The location of the body of water remains unclear as Lee did not return the Miami Herald’s request for comment, but alligators are popping up more as mating season runs through June, according to FWC.
