Sometime between learning to crawl and taking their first step, children in Florida are taught how to fight alligators. That knowledge came in handy for nine-year-old James Barney, Jr., who took a forbidden dip in Lake Tohopekaliga, and then fought off a nine-foot, 500-pound water monster.
“At first, I thought someone was just playing with me, and I didn’t know what happened. I reached down to grab it, and I felt its jaw, I felt its teeth, and I didn’t know what to do, so I immediately reacted and hit it a couple times. And I had enough strength to pry its jaw open.” (Via)
Barney, Jr. was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for “three superficial bites, mostly on his buttocks, and about 30 teeth marks and claw scratches on his back, stomach and legs.” Doctors even found one of the gator’s teeth in his wounds. When asked what he was going to do with the parting gift, Barney, Jr. replied, “I want to put it on a necklace so that I can tell all my friends.”
That is the only acceptable animal tooth necklace ever.