Man tries to sell shark at Publix
FORT LAUDERDALE — Wildlife officials may start looking into something fishy: A man recently placed a shark just footsteps from the entrance of a busy supermarket as customers walked by.
It happened at Publix at 1940 Cordova Road in Fort Lauderdale.
Now, it ’s “more than likely” that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will investigate, agency spokesman Jorge Pino said Saturday.
Cellphone footage, obtained by WSVN-Ch. 7, shows the shark outside the supermarket. Patrick Lanier, of Broward County, told WSVN on camera that he reeled in the live shark from the Intracoastal Waterway on Thursday and decided to try to sell it.
“I felt like a leprechaun, like I struck gold,” he told the station.
Publix staff realized what was happening and ask him to leave, a Publix spokeswoman said.
“Store management asked the individual to leave the doorway as we do not allow for unauthorized solicitation or sale of products outside our store fronts,” said the spokeswoman, Nicole Krauss.
SunSentinel.com/shark
Lanier told WSVN that when no one seemed interested in buying it, he placed the shark back in the Intracoastal and saw it swim away. Whether Lanier faced any penalty remains unclear. He couldn’t be reached urday.
Whether the wildlife commission will investigate “all depends on what kind of species it was,” Pino said.
Some customers of the Fort Lauderdale Publix on Saturday seemed unfazed by news that a shark had been placed outside their local supermarket.
It “doesn’t really surprise me that much,” said Mark Green of Fort Lauderdale,
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Sat- recalling how he once saw a woman with a large snake on a New York subway. Still, Green said he hoped the shark survived. That would be “a happy ending for the shark.”
Staff writer Erika Pesantes contributed to this report.
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