A Florida man was so desperate to prevent his girlfriend or officers from accessing his phone that after being questioned by police while on a boat, he dove into the ocean to avoid giving up the passcode, evading arrest.
Body camera footage taken in April shows two female Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) officers questioning a man who identified himself as AJ and his girlfriend on a boat somewhere in the waters near Key West. video It was posted last week.
The video, which has been viewed more than a million times, shows AJ arguing with police and his girlfriend over his phone and ID, becoming increasingly agitated and eventually jumping into the ocean.
He wondered what would happen if he swam away, and was chased by officers for seven minutes before being brought back to shore and subsequently arrested.
The incident began when two officers told the couple they were searching another vessel in their jurisdiction, but the incident happened to AJ and his girlfriend who were on the boat that was breaking the rules.
Police soon discovered that neither AJ nor his unidentified girlfriend had any identification on them, and that the boat he was piloting was in violation of several regulations.
While he maintains he’s done nothing wrong, he grows increasingly angrier at the officers, asking, “Are they just trying to catch people breaking the law on the water?”
“Obviously, we’re police officers and we deal with violations and that’s our job,” one of the officers responded.
As AJ became increasingly agitated with the officers, they asked him if he had a warrant out for his arrest.
“Usually the reason people act like that is because they have a warrant out for their arrest,” one officer tells the angry boater, while his girlfriend repeatedly tells him to “calm down.”
“You need to relax…you’re panicking,” the girlfriend tells him.
Becoming increasingly anxious, AJ asked the officer, “What would happen if I jumped in the water and swam away?”
“I’m going to follow you,” one of the officers replied. “I’m telling you, you can’t just walk away.”
The video then cuts to officers looking at a blurry computer screen showing that there is a warrant out for AJ’s arrest.
As tensions rise, AJ tells the officers he’s going to swim home.
“AJ, if you jump in that water, I’ll be gone tomorrow,” his girlfriend threatened.
She then asks her boyfriend to unlock her phone and get his boss’s phone number.
“What’s the password to your phone?” she asked AJ during his argument with police.
AJ then moved to a corner at the back of the boat and told the officers, “I’m not going to jail today.”
His girlfriend then took his phone and stood in front of his face, telling him to unlock it again and help her.
Not wanting to go to jail or give his girlfriend access to the device, AJ jumps into the water.
The officers try to take him back to the boat to arrest him, but while AJ claims he’s “not resisting,” his girlfriend continues to demand the passcode to his phone.
After arguing with the officer for about a minute, the anxious boater began to swim.
“This is it, I’m telling you,” his girlfriend yells at him, “I’m leaving!”
AJ then slowly swims back to shore for seven minutes, pursued by two FWC officers.
Before reaching land, officers jumped from the boat and handcuffed him.
Officers then escort him to the shore, where another officer is waiting for him, before the video ends.
It’s unclear what charges AJ faces following this bizarre turn of events.
The Washington Post has contacted the FWC for clarification on the incident.
Commenters on the video pointed out that AJ seemed more worried about his girlfriend snooping on his phone than he was about getting arrested.
“Bro wasn’t worried about going to jail, he was worried about his phone being unlocked,” one user wrote.
“I would rather commit a felony than let my girlfriend use my phone,” commented another.
“She asked for the password to his phone and he jumped in the ocean,” another user commented.
