I can’t say swimming in the River Walk sounds like my idea of the perfect downtown outing, but it’s certainly been hot enough in San Antonio to joke about it before.
However, the intrusive thought of many San Antonians (OK, maybe just me) has actually happened, with a TikTok posted on November 15 showing a woman submerged waist-deep in the strikingly green water as she searched for her lost phone. Captured from a river barge, the video posted by @doskogirl was viewed more than 1 million times and prompted thousands of icked-out comments.
“I live in San Antonio, I hope she saw a doctor afterwards,” one commenter wrote. Another said, “My skin started crawling watching this.”
Some might say the color of the water speaks for itself. But in case nobody told you, swimming, bathing, wading – really any type of contact with the water – is prohibited at the San Antonio River by force of a misdemeanor and $500 fine, according to a city ordinance. It’s dangerous for a few reasons: one, because the levels of E. Coli in the river are several times higher than what’s considered safe, and because certain parts of the river are deep and deadly enough to sweep people away, while others are shallow enough to make a fall extremely painful. Take it from Jackass’ Steve-O.
Safety and city codes aside, several commenters were wondering if all that searching was worth it. According to @doskogirl in a comment under the video, despite having her phone called in an attempt to see it better, it never turned up. One commenter said, “There’s [nothing] on your phone that’s this important.”
“I would rather be phoneless than even breathe next to the SATX River walk,” another person wrote. “That is absolutely disgusting.”
This article originally published at ‘Disgusting’: Woman’s recent dip in San Antonio River has locals’ skin crawling.