When a Holtsville man went to Cancun for vacation he expected fun and relaxation. What he got instead was a fight for his life. Edward Lunger, 50, was playing a round of golf at the Iberostar Cancun Golf Club in Mexico when he was attacked by the monstrous crocodile.
“It was in the sand,” he told the New York Post.
Lunger hooked the ball left of the fairway when it landed in the pit. After getting the ball out with some practice swings the crocodile set its sights on the vacationing Long Island man and leapt up at him. His friend, Mark Martin, also a Holtsville resident, first saw Lunger swing his arms and head back. Then he saw the croc jumping on him.
“She pulled me back and flipped me, and I went to the ground,” Lunger said.
It viciously bit down on his left arm and elbow and used its tail to drag Lunger into the sand. Lunger’s saving grace was his quick reaction time. Before the monster pounced on him he braced himself by getting a knee to the ground. Lunger says he somehow pulled himself out of the angry female’s primitive deathlock but has no recollection of doing it.
During Lunger’s fight for his life, Martin jumped out of their golf cart, grabbed a 40-pound boulder, and smashed it onto the croc’s head. The two men then escaped. Thinking his hand had been ripped from his arm, the two friends used golf towels to make a tourniquet around it to stop the bleeding.
“I’m thinking my whole hand is off,” Lunger said to the Post. “I couldn’t feel my hand. It was like my whole body was on fire.”
Paramedics rushed him to the hospital but he was forced to pay $17,800 before they would even start looking at him. Both friends split the bill on their credit cards. Once he was finally treated, Lunger noticed he indeed did have his hand. His index finger was reattached but he lost his middle finger and a part of his ring finger.
Lunger doesn’t blame the crocodile who was looking to take his life. He instead blames the golf course for having such a monster as a tourist attraction. There were no warning signs that the croc was there. All that he saw was yellow caution tape cordoning off the area.
In order to avoid a lawsuit the golf course tried making him sign a form absolving them from the attack and placing full responsibility on Lunger. He signed nothing and is currently suing the course for $2.25 million.
A Brooklyn Federal Court is saying Lunger wasn’t the first person attacked by a croc on this particular golf course either.
[Source: New York Post]