Miami Beach Parking Garage Gets Octopus Surprise

A few Miami Beach motorists got a slimy surprise on Monday when they parked their cars in a parking garage along South Beach and an octopus reportedly popped out of a drainage system to greet them.

“Yeah, it’s possible whenever you have flooding from below as well as flooding from above,” meteorologist James Thomas with the National Weather Service in Miami told Patch on Tuesday. “Due to the flooding underground or underground systems, as the tide rises you could have sea creatures making their way through the system (and) through pipelines.”

The octopus most likely took advantage of the so-called king tides that South Florida has been experiencing this week to come ashore. Reports said that the sea critter was later scooped up and placed in the bay by a security guard.

Thomas went a step further, as any good meteorologist would, and polled his colleagues at the National Weather Center as to the likelihood of an octopus actually popping up through a drainage system.

“Hold on. Let me get one more opinion on this octopus. There are a couple of other forecasters here,” he explained, concluding after a brief pause: “It’s definitely possible … with the higher tides.”

King tide is not a scientific term, nor does there appear to be a consensus as to whether it’s singular or plural. Rather, it's a colloquial way of referring to the highest tides of the season, which is what South Florida has been experiencing this week.

This occurrence has been particularly troublesome thanks to the supermoon.

“This one is being caused by the proximity of the supermoon to the earth. It's 15,000 or 16,000 miles closer than normal,” added Thomas.

A local Miami Beach realtor came across the octopus and posted a photo on Twitter.

Social media erupted with disbelief and comic relief.

“Is this real? Octopus kinda has that grocery store look,” penned one Twitter subscriber.

“This is the town that brought you a shark on the Metrorail. Nothing would surprise me,” replied another.

Many people weighed in like they were diving for a steaming platter of calamari.

“And now, thanks to the flooding in Miami Beach, due to the supermoon, we present... an octopus in a parking garage,” tweeted one user.

One post even channeled “Sharknado.”

“Wut. There are octopus in the Miami Beach waters???? Oh, hell no. lol.”

Photo used with permission