A British Columbia man accused of stripping naked and jumping into a shark tank at a Toronto aquarium has pleaded guilty to mischief.
David Weaver, of Nelson, B.C., was arrested and charged in October of last year, four days after the incident.
Police say he went to Ripley’s Aquarium in downtown Toronto on Oct. 12, bought a ticket, then stripped naked and jumped into the facility’s shark tank.
A large crowd was at the aquarium that night and some in attendance took videos of the incident.
The videos, which attracted international attention after surfacing on social media, show a naked man swimming in the tank with sand tiger sharks, sawfish and moray eels.
The man then starts to climb out of the tank before performing a back dive into the water.
Officials have said the man then got out and got dressed but left behind a T-shirt and his jacket.
Police have said by the time they arrived at the aquarium, the man had fled.
Weaver was arrested near Thunder Bay, Ont., — hundreds of kilometres away — during a vehicle stop.
Police have also alleged that earlier on Oct. 12, Weaver assaulted a man outside Medieval Times, a jousting-themed dinner theatre. A window was also allegedly broken.
Weaver was charged with assault and mischief in that earlier incident, which is now being dealt with separately by the court, and will face trial on those charges in late October.
The Canadian Press
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