Talk about unaware. An oblivious tourist wasn't paying attention to the warning signs and entered the waters where locals spotted a hungry crocodile. The startling incident happened in Mexico's Riviera Maya.
Tourist Miranda Sharpe will learn to pay attention after her brush with danger. The tourist shared a video of herself standing in the shallow waters on TikTok. At the time, she wasn't aware of the black flag flying in the background. She wrote on the video, "Me being oblivious." In case you weren't aware, black flags aren't just for decoration.
Black flags in Mexico are similar to red flags in America - they indicate the highest level of danger. This danger includes currents or in this case a possible crocodile. Hotel staff later disclosed that a crocodile had been seen in the area.
Crocodile In Water
"This video was taken Saturday, the 17th. Honestly, we had to ask about the flag—there were staff from the nearby hotel who were not open about a potential crocodile," Sharpe told Newsweek. "So when we asked and figured out that it was for that, we were pretty freaked out and got out of the water."
Both the American crocodile and the Morelet's crocodile are native to the area. Although purple or white flags indicate marine dangers, the black flag is a warning of danger. Basically, she shouldn't have been swimming. One commenter pointed out that the same thing happened on their vacation. They wrote, "Me and my husband on honeymoon in Mexico oblivious to the flag flying high color is like high winds or something in us so didn't think of it but then locals are like nooo crocs in water they have a flag for CROCS IN WATER we didn't even know they were common in Mexico."
"Black flag means unsafe water you shouldn't be swimming in it," one person commented.
"Uhmmm so am I the only one who didn't know there was a such thing as a black flag," another wrote.
Yet another person also commented, "There should definitely be signs. Just because people native to the area know what the flags mean doesn't mean others do."
