A Florida man caught riding a manatee in a local creek unsurprisingly ended up in trouble after daring police to arrest him.

Witnesses weren’t too pleased when they saw James Roy Massengale Jr, 47, swimming with four manatees, and informed him it was illegal to harass them as they're a protected species.

To clarify the situation, Massengale responded that he was in fact riding one of them.

(Florida Wildlife Commission)

The man had been swimming in a creek in Islamoroda when witnesses spotted him and decided to call the police.

When they showed up, police said they found him “reaching for, touching and lying over top of manatees in the creek".

A Florida Wildlife Commission officer informed him he would receive an order to appear in court on charges of annoying, molesting, harassing, or disturbing a manatee.

That’s when Massengale said he wouldn’t bother showing up and started chanting:

Take me to jail! Take me to jail!

So they took him to jail.

Massengale was held on $25,000 bond for harassing the manatees, but mainly for refusing to cooperate with police.

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