Naked man in viral shark photo reportedly identified, now fears for his life
By SDS
Published:
This is the biggest sports news you’ll read today. I’m kidding, kind of.
The naked man in the viral shark photo may have reportedly been identified, according to the Orlando Sentinel, and he’s a former New York City police officer. The report cites David Pingalore, a sports anchor for WKMG-TV in Orlando, hopped on Mike Bianchi’s morning radio show. Pingalore said a friend of the man sent him other (clothed) photos.
“This guy lives in upstate New York, that photo was taken two years ago off the shores of Long Island — not in Florida,” Pingalore said. “I have the man that’s fully clothed that’s naked on the shark, on the boat. Yes, normal photographs.”
RELATED: The funniest Jim McElwain shark memes we found
And get this: Pingalore claims he brokered a meeting between the naked man in the photo and Jim McElwain, but at the last second, the man got cold feet and called the meeting off. Pingalore says the man wanted to meet McElwain.
Pingalore added that the man now fears for his own safety after the photo went viral.
“The man is that is naked on the shark is afraid for his life because he believes bounty hunters — I’m not making this up — and people with shark people, whatever those people would be called … he’s afraid because the New York Post put up an article about ‘who is this naked man’ on the naked shark,” Pingalore said.
The shark photo isn’t new, according to Pingalore, and it’s been around a couple years. The photo was supposedly meant to be a parody in the first place.
“They were mocking, according to this gentlemen, I guess in the UK there’s some websites that naked women get on sharks, so they were trying to mock what women were doing with sharks,” Pingalore told Bianchi.
Here’s the photo that went viral:
Who is this man? Please RT, find him & ask him why he did this? Where is the humour in humiliating slaughtered animals? @ChrisGPackham pic.twitter.com/uHN37OywCx
— Anneka Svenska (@AnnekaSvenska) May 5, 2017
Naturally, everyone commented how it looked somewhat like McElwain, and McElwain was even asked about it by a reporter Tuesday evening. And he wasn’t happy about it. Here’s the video if you haven’t seen it.
“Well, first and foremost, I don’t know who it is, but it isn’t me,” McElwain said in response to the question about the photo. “In the world we live in, what is a story? I just know this — it isn’t me.”
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