It was a refriger-gator.
As if having ants invade your picnic wasn’t bad enough, footage captured the alarming moment a thieving crocodile crashed a South African safari group’s alfresco meal and made off with their drink cooler.
“We were trying to have a picnic here when this guy just comes straight out of the water,” exclaimed victim Davout Wolhuter in the clip, which was uploaded to Facebook by Latest Sightings, where it’s reached more than 160,000 views.
The reptilian pilfering occurred while Wolhuter and Rowena Mould, 70, were out spotting game at the Rietspruit Game Reserve in Greater Kruger National Park Area, Latest Sightings reported.
The pair had reportedly just seen a cheetah and were sitting down to a picnic lunch when a massive crocodile emerged from a nearby body of water and decided to join the party.
In the clip, the cold-blooded chiller could be seen relaxing next to a lavish food spread in front of their safari truck.
The picnicker was quick to chastise the crocodilian interloper, declaring: “This is not playing cricket — go back into the water.”
The camera then panned to the safari-goers, who took refuge in the Jeep, a somewhat safe distance away from the scaly picnic pillager.
Fortunately, in this case, humans didn’t appear to be the object of the croc’s desire.
In the ensuing frames, the crocodile could be seen lounging in the water, clutching a blue drink cooler that he’d reportedly commandeered from the picnic.
“This is not very gentlemanly behavior,” spluttered Wolhuter, who described how the croc had upended the icebox during its theft, strewing wine bottles everywhere.
Just when the clip couldn’t get any more ludicrous, a second croc lunged at the cooler in the water, prompting the two apex predators to engage in a tug of war as if fighting over a zebra carcass.
“Geez,” exclaimed Wolhuter of the frightening spectacle. “Two crocs on it.”
While this instance of interspecies gift-giving was involuntary, Kruger National Park warns visitors against purposefully feeding the refuge’s critters for fear that they could become habituated to people.
“If animals are fed they will lose their natural fear of humans and could become aggressive,” the park writes on its website.
That is perhaps especially important in the case of the Nile crocodile, which is the world’s second-largest reptile, capable of growing to more than 20 feet long and weighing as much as 2,000 pounds.
While smaller than the saltwater crocodile, this known man-eater is responsible for fatal attacks on humans, killing some 300 people per year.
In April 2022, a Zimbabwe fisherman narrowly escaped with his life when he was mauled by four crocodiles and dragged underwater in a “death roll.”