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A video showing a guy pulling a fishing boat behind him as another man rides along on roller skates has gone viral online, but others think it’s really a staged hoax.
In a video uploaded on TikTok last week, the guy could be seen pulling the sizable powerboat hooked to his mobility scooter down Marine Parade at Coolangatta on the Gold Coast.
Locals recognised the guy as popular online persona “Mangrove Merv,” who has shown in viral videos nonchalantly robbing a fisherman’s cart and riding a mobility scooter down a major highway.
Also seen is a local guy attempting to board the fishing boat while wearing roller skates.
Making room for Mangrove Merv, a different poster wrote.
One individual said, “Real fisherman are going to go on the sea no matter what.”
Willem Ungermann, popularly known as Willem Powerfish, a prolific social media prankster from the Gold Coast, posted another version of the video with the same guy and his mobility scooter.
Powerfish sells items with the Mangrove Merv character on it and has uploaded a lot of movies showcasing the character on his channels.
On YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and other social media sites, Powerfish has millions of fans.
After publishing films in which he harassed individuals while they were fishing and threw raw chickens at thieves, he gained notoriety.
When Ungermann reportedly drove his vehicle and a boat trailer towing a tinnie into the Tweed River in northern New South Wales on November 20, 2019, he got into problems for his practical jokes.
He had the option of paying a $1 million fine or serving seven years in prison.
He avoided going to prison and just received a $15,100 fine in 2021 for his prank.
Ungermann’s “Boat Ramp Session Vol 3” included the footage.
NSW Police said that astonished onlookers who saw the Coolangatta man repeatedly jackknife the vehicle into the trailer summoned them to the scene.
Additionally, it was claimed that a freelance filmmaker had captured the “hazardous” act on tape before Ungermann posted the edited version online.
Ungermann recorded himself inside the automobile as it filled with water after it supposedly backed into the river.
A Hazmat crew was apparently dispatched to the site to mop up fuel that the automobile is said to have spilled into the river.
According to court records acquired by Gold Coast Bulletin, Ungermann told police what happened: “My gumboot slipped and I accidently touched the accelerator.”
On September 28, at Tweed Heads Local Court, Ungermann entered a plea of guilty to five offences, including carelessly dumping of rubbish that harmed the environment.