ORLANDO, Fla. – It was a typical spring afternoon in southwest Florida’s Myakka River.
Jeffrey Heim strapped on his mask, fins and head-mounted GoPro and eased into the murky water to begin his favorite hobby: hunting for massive megalodon shark teeth.
The hobby would later become a career for Heim, who now owns a company called SHRKco which collects and sells the ancient shark teeth and donates profits for ocean research organizations.
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“I did know the dangers but I don’t think I took them seriously enough back then,” Heim told Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden on the latest episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate.
While sifting through sand on the river bottom, Heim says he felt what seemed like a boat strike his head.
“It was very powerful. It seemed a lot larger than it actually was,” Heim said. “I saw her. She did bite me twice before I knew what was happening.”
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The GoPro strapped to his head was recording at the time and the footage shows a large jolt and bubbles in the cloudy water as the camera sunk to the bottom of the river.
Heim then realized a large female alligator bit a section of his scalp and his hand — and was coming back for another strike.
“You never want to thrash or splash or act like prey, so I stayed calm,” Heim said.
After avoiding two more attempted bites, Heim managed to make his way onto the riverbank and call for help.
He was rushed to the hospital where nurses put 34 staples into his head and treated severe puncture wounds on his hand where the gator chomped down.
Heim believes his injuries could have been much worse if it weren’t for the waterproof camera strapped to his head.
“I still don’t think I felt the full force of that bite. And if I did, my head would’ve exploded,” he said.
It has been over two years since the attack and Heim’s scars have healed while his passion for megalodon tooth collecting has only grown.
“Eventually someday when I’m old I want to have a museum of my best finds... and then pass that story on when I’m no longer here as well,” he said.
Heim’s most well-known megalodon tooth find came about two months after the gator attack when Heim uncovered a “miracle” 6 inch megalodon tooth.
Watch the full interview on Florida’s Fourth Estate at the top of this story to learn what happened to the 8-foot alligator that bit him and Heim’s advice for finding ancient megalodon teeth in Central Florida.
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