A man had his arm viciously torn off by an alligator behind a Florida bar early Sunday morning.
Jordan Rivera, 23, fell into a pond behind Banditos Bar near closing time, reported NBC. The bathroom lines inside the bar were long, so Rivera decided to relieve himself in the pond instead.
“So I ended up walking over to the water hole, I didn’t realize how big it was at the time, as I was going over there something happened where I either tripped or the ground below me just went down,” Rivera told NBC. “I ended up in the water. And that’s literally the last thing I remember.” (RELATED: ‘Psycho Gulls’: British Sea Birds Rob Stoners, Get High On Synthetic Weed)
A quick bladder relief behind a bar caused 23 y.o Jordan Rivera, a Florida man, to lose his arm after a wild attack from an unexpected alligator. pic.twitter.com/CNxrW7YQWp
— bogazi88 (@BoGazi88) May 23, 2023
While inside the bar, Manny Hidalgo heard Rivera’s shouts from the pond and quickly grabbed his phone and flashlight, reported Daily Sun. “He was yelling and swimming toward the shoreline,” Hidalgo told The Daily Sun. “I ran and dragged him up onto the sand. I was scared to get close to the water because it was dark out.”
Rivera was immediately airlifted by helicopter to a hospital, where medical professionals had to amputate his arm, reported KSAT. A nuisance alligator trapper successfully captured the 10.5-foot alligator from the property.
Rivera told NBC he doesn’t remember much from the incident. “I was like ‘Whoa’. Because I just woke up and I was just sitting here. And I looked over and I saw my arm the way it was and I was like, ‘Whoa,’” he said. “It kind of feels like my arm is just there, but not there.”
“Although many Floridians have learned to coexist with alligators, the potential for conflict always exists,” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission warns on its website.