Man Grabs Shark With Hands; Blames Vodka

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- A man who caught a
4-foot shark with his bare hands off an Australian beach said on Friday
he only tried the feat because he was drunk on vodka.

Phillip
Kerkhof was fishing off a jetty at Louth Bay, a town on South Australia
state's Eyre Peninsula 870 miles west of Sydney, when he spotted the
bronze whaler shark swimming in the shallows, the Australian
Broadcasting Corp. reported.

"I just snuck up behind him, and eventually I went for the big grab and I fluked it and got him," Kerkhof said.

"He
was just thrashing around in the water ... starting to turn around and
try to bite me and I thought 'well, it's amazing what vodka does',"
Kerkhof said.

The shark bit a hole in Kerkhof's jeans, but he was uninjured.

"It's
not something I'd recommend to do. When I sobered up I thought about it
and I said, 'I'm a bit of an idiot for doing it'," Kerkhof said.