William Rainer
On June 1st, an amateur TikTok influencer took to the Busch Gardens in a lackluster attempt to step up his game. The 20-year-old, desperate for social media attention, managed to get himself arrested for hopping into the gator habitat.
Videos by Rare
Jacob Pursifull and his buddies began videoing the stunt shortly after sneaking into the Gardens and stealing snacks from an unattended concession cart nearby, according to the New York Post. As the video began, Pursifull slipped into his best impression of Steve Irwin, it was pretty weak, to say the least.
The Louisiana native leaped over the fences and said: “Crikey, mate, this is insane, let’s get a closer look, shall we, just to see how it is.” He continued as his friends recorded: “We have never been this close to the alligator, the crocodile, guys, crikey, look how big that bugger is.”
Influencer Gets Arrested After Jumping Into Gator Pit For Social Media Challenge
The crowd at the scene was entirely unamused beckoning the kid to get out of the pit. In fact, the crowd was more in favor of the gators than the TikToker. This prompted the Australian accent to devolve even more as Pursifull shouted back at the crowd calling them ‘Karens’. Soon security arrived and Pursifull tried to flee the scene. He escaped the park but was hunted down by investigators and arrested by the Tampa police. He was then charged with burglary, petit theft, and of course trespassing.
Authorities are concerned that others might follow in his footsteps and have made it a point to say that the stunt was stupid, they are happy the guys have been arrested, and they are glad ample justice is being served.
At the end of the day Jacob Pursifull got arrested, will likely be paying fines, risked being gator lunch and worst of all, he failed to amuse his audience.
