Greg, a vacationing schoolteacher, was beach-combing with his family at Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina when he spotted a shark in shallow waters. He described it on Facebook as a six-foot shark that ended up swimming in waters that could not have been more than two or three feet in depth. “I was really surprised that something that large was coming in that close to shore,” Greg told People Magazine.

Greg’s close encounter proved to be a viral hit on Facebook, where it amassed over 1.5 million views. Credit: YouTube/Gregory Phillips