I didn’t even know one could steal a tarpon…
Video started surfacing yesterday of a young man in a Fort Meyers Bass Pro Shops stealing something that I’m thinking may never have been stolen before.
According to NBC2, the unknown man grabbed a fishing net off the shelf, walked over to the tarpon pond inside the Gulf Coast Town Center store, and scooped up a 50 pound tarpon before simply walking it out of the store, leaving both customers and employees in shock.
Local authorities posted this video to Facebook, which was captured by a customer in the moments after the fish was pulled from the pond.
“ACTIVE INVESTIGATION: LCSO IS ATTEMPTING TO LOCATE RETAIL THEFT SUSPECT
But not just you ‘normal’ retail theft. We guess you could say THIS one will o-fish-ially catch your eye.
Yesterday evening, a male suspect entered the Bass Pro Shops in Gulf Coast Town Center with a fish net in hand, and proceeded to remove a live tarpon from the store’s indoor fish pond. The suspect then fled the store with the tarpon.”
Didn’t know police were getting cute with their announcements these days…
There is a lot to be said about this…
For starters, why is it so easy to pull a 50 pound fish out of a tank? I’ve never been to the store myself, but the largemouth bass tanks are pretty tall and you can’t just reach in and pull one out, so looks like there may be a design flaw here. (Not that you’d ever imagine someone would do this, but it is Florida…)
Also, did no store employees see this while it was happening? How do you just walk unimpeded through the store with a 50 pound fish wiggling in a stolen net? And why did no customers say anything? It’s obviously not natural for someone to be carrying a dripping wet fish through Bass Pro Shops, you think there would have been at least one redneck there that put a stop to it.
But alas, none of that happened and, for now, the kid is on the loose.
Officials say there was another man and woman with him who filmed the whole thing on a GoPro.
I’m betting they wanted this to go viral and it certainly has, just not for the reasons they hoped for. If they eventually claim credit for this or get identified, they’re looking at some serious penalties that involved both theft of retail property (which Florida doesn’t go easy on) and animal cruelty charges, which can be punishable with up to 5 years in prison.
So yeah, safe to say this prank backfired mightily…
I really try not to say this, but kids these days are out of control.
