He Allegedly Escaped Police, Then a Shark

Zachary Kingsbury faces a slew of charges
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 1, 2017 10:52 AM CDT

Had the man known he'd be so close to a shark, it's possible he would've stuck with facing the cops. Police in North Carolina say 20-year-old Zachary Kingsbury made a beeline for the ocean after officers allegedly found drugs in his vehicle during a traffic stop in Surf City on Wednesday, per WECT. Authorities say they pulled over Kingsbury and spotted a controlled substance in his car shortly before 5pm. He "fled the scene on foot," reached a nearby beach, and then jumped into the ocean, officers tell the Charlotte Observer. The suspect swam and swam and kept on swimming, say officers, who kept an eye on him with a drone. Footage from the drone shows something else was watching him, too.

According to the Observer, a 5-foot-long shark was at one point swimming roughly 60 feet from the suspect, who seemed oblivious. "After 60 minutes of [drone] flight time, Kingsbury was over 4,000 feet offshore and visual contact was lost. At that point, the operation became a rescue operation," reads a statement from Surf City Police. Police say they caught up with an uninjured Kingsbury a couple of hours later at a beach several miles from his starting point. He is now charged with resisting arrest, obstructing an officer, and possession of meth, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia, per Fox News. (More weird crimes stories.)

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