Leaping into a crocodile's house to impress a "beautiful backpacker" before said croc took a chomp was totally worth it for this Australian. Lee De Paauw, 18, told9 News he was a few drinks deep when he intentionally jumped into the Johnstone River at Innisfail this weekend just to show off in front of a young woman named Sophie Paterson.
"[The crocodile] took me underneath the water, shook its head a bit, and I managed to get a good punch in on its eye, and then it let go and I swam back to the stairs," De Paauw, 18, told the local Today team Tuesday. Though De Paauw didn't initially feel any croc-induced pain, that stroke of luck quickly gave way to "pure agony" as he started walking up the street. "I couldn't stop screaming," he said.
Prior to the great croc jump of 2017, De Paauw said he'd been teasing a group of backpackers with his theory that crocodiles were more inclined to chomp on an out-of-towner than an Australian. De Paauw was released from the hospital after being treated for two broken bones and bite marks. Though he admitted to9 News the croc stunt amounted to "stupidity," De Paauw added "it was all worth it." In a compelling turn of events, Paterson has since agreed to catch a movie with De Paauw.
Not all post-alcohol reptile hangs go so smoothly. A Texas man was at an outdoor marina bar in Orange in July 2015 when he responded to a woman's alligator risk reminder with the rarely uttered phrase "Fuck that alligator," Buzzfeed Newsreported. After jumping into the water, the man was "attacked almost immediately" and killed.
