It's a scare along the Jersey Shore you have to hear.
On Sunday, a 15-year-old from Pennsylvania, who was trying her hand at surfing, was taking a break in the ocean off Stone Harbor Beach when a shark struck.
Miles from home and away from her parents that young girl knew she had to get herself to the beach, and fast.
“My whole body was in the water; I was just resting. I felt something on my foot, and it pulled me down underwater. It didn't hurt but I felt pressure and all the teeth around the bottom of my foot. My whole foot was in its mouth,” said the victim, Maggie Drozdowski.
“I heard her scream; she went under the water, and I thought she was drowning and then she came back up and said she got bit, or something bit her. I told her to get on the board and swim to shore because I thought it was a crab at first, didn't think it would be a shark,” her friend Sarah said.
The attack happened just as Maggie and her friend Sarah were about to pack it in to head back home.
“I swam out as fast as I could and got out finally and I look at my foot and it was all bloody,” Maggie said.
Maggie made it to the beach; her friend's mom noticed her foot as she hobbled on the sand.”
“Maggie bravely walked out of the ocean holding the surfboard. I knew she was in pain, and she was so strong about it and she was kind of limping,” her friend’s mom said.
“I figured it was a jellyfish bite; I knew it was more than a crab bite and when I saw her and the blood coming from her leg,” she added.
There were no lifeguards scheduled and not too many others around.
Her friend’s mother called 911 and Stone Harbor Fire and Rescue cleaned the wound and got Maggie to the hospital.
“I'm still in shock; I didn't think anything like that would ever happen at the Jersey Shore,” Maggie added.
And the hope is that it won't ever happen again.
Maggie has yet to take a look at the wound, as she needs to stay off her feet for some time, and while New Jersey officials say they believe the injury is from a shark, they are not putting any beach restrictions in place ahead of Memorial Day weekend.
When asked if she would surf again, Maggie responded, “not anytime soon.”
Maggie will miss a few weeks of her competitive dancing but her mom says since odds of being attacked by a shark are more than one in 11.5 million, her family may try their hands at getting some lotto tickets.
Her family says that she was lucky and they are grateful it all wasn't worse.
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