People have proven time and again that they would go to any length, or in this case, depths, just for their devices. A woman in San Antonio, Texas, intentionally went into an E. coli-infested river in search of her phone. A video uploaded on X, formerly Twitter, showed the woman, surrounded by many people, who were both amazed and horrified by what she was about to do, step off the sidewalk, legs first, into the river. “You actually…” a woman on the sidewalk said, clearly disgusted and barely stopping herself from puking into the river.
“Oh my God,” a couple of people exclaimed as the woman waded through the water in search of her device. After a couple of moments, the woman picked something up with her foot, but it turned out to be just a brick, leaving both the woman and her spectators disappointed; “Oh, no, that’s a brick,” someone said. “I’m going to be famous on TikTok,” the woman said, using the facecap she was wearing to shield her face but continuing her search in the messy river. Many Internet users could not fathom the woman’s actions and wasted no time expressing their feelings.
“There is no way I’m getting in there for a phone,” one wrote, stating a saner option, “I’d head straight to the Apple Store.” A couple of users brought up the possible implications for her health. “If she has any cuts or abrasions, the phone isn’t worth an amputation or worse, a life,” one wrote, while another added, “One piece of broken glass cuts her feet, and she’ll have a raging infection.”
“Her pH level is going to be all over the place,” a third one noted. A commenter pointed out, “No one is mentioning how the homeless use this for their own personal toilet? Not just the water but the entire Riverwalk. So many needles and having to step over humans and their feces along the entire Riverwalk.” Another group considered what the woman did was downright dumb. “People are too dumb these days… we shouldn’t be too far from the next pandemic lol.” A second one added, “I’ve been to that Riverwalk many times. Never have I seen anyone dumb enough to get into that nasty water.”
Someone else blamed it entirely on the invention of phones, writing, ”The phone has destroyed common sense.” Still, a few could relate to the woman and pointed out justifications for her actions. “So, what? You ain’t jumping in that for your $2000 phone? She did nothing wrong,” a user wrote. A second one added, “In her defense, a lot of people would have done the same thing. People are crazy for phones.”
A last wrote. “Well, a foot search for her phone… semi logical. I’d prefer fisherman’s waders boots, but it’s not like she’s drinking it or diving in doing the butterfly. Did she find her phone?”
