Running from the police is one of the stupidest things you can do. Swimming through deep waters where there are sharks is another one of the stupidest things you can do. This driver did both. On Wednesday afternoon, police in Surf City, North Carolina, pulled over a driver named Zachary Kingsbury on a street that, Google Maps says, is about 200 feet from the beach. After police said they spotted some “illegal contraband” in the vehicle, they asked Kingsbury to step out of the car. He did, and then, a few moments later, fled toward the beach. He would spend the next few hours in the ocean.
A police drone tracked Kingsbury for about an hour of that time, and police later released video that showed some of the distance he swam. As you can see below, Kingsbury was pretty far out—nearly a mile off shore, police said, when they lost track of him.
At some point, a shark got involved too, swimming “parallel” to Kingsbury about 25 feet away, according to The Charlotte Observer.
Finally, around 7:45 p.m., Kingsbury was taken into custody a few miles away, having been the subject of a search that included a trove of local emergency crews, in addition to the U.S. Coast Guard, Surf City police said.
Kingsbury was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing an officer, possession of drug paraphernalia, methamphetamine, and possession of marijuana of up to a half an ounce, according to the Observer.
You shouldn’t resist a lawful arrest though swimming in the ocean for a very long time is a novel (and fairly exhausting, even just to think about, sheesh) way to do it.