Mysterious Sharks Dance Away Bethel's Coronavirus Blues

BETHEL, CT — A couple of mysterious sharks have caught the fancy of the town.

Maybe it's the cabin fever finally setting in, or perhaps this is what happens when you go too long without washing your mask, but Bethelites are going wild for two people in inflatable shark suits who pop up randomly around town.

"They started showing up a couple of weeks ago," said Hannah Lipman. She's the owner of a national executive search firm, and arguably the sharks' biggest admirer.

Residents began to post photos and videos of their shark sightings across various social media platforms. It was difficult for even super-fans like Lipman to track them all down, so she created the Facebook group Bethel Shark Sighting with the hope it would become the principal repository of all things Bethel Sharks-related. She was not disappointed.

Lipman described the sharks as extremely "socially aware."

"If a 2-year-old has a birthday, they'll show on (the child's) lawn, and do a dance," she told Patch. "If somebody comes home from the hospital and has gotten off a ventilator, they show up at their door, and do a dance."

Admit now that you didn't have dancing sharks on your Plague Amusements Bingo Card.

Do sharks take requests? New Bethel Shark Sighting group member Jonna Elizabeth evidently thinks so. She posted:

Hi sharks !!! My best friends daughters Dezelenes Birthday is this Friday, May 8th. She would love a visit at home if at all possible ?! Please and thank you sooo much !!! I’ll be making cupcakes for her and the sharks lol

The duo has been surprising children with presents, paid for with money from their own pockets, which they don't seem to have. (Pockets, we mean. They could be swimming in cash, for all we know.)

So Kim Ramsey, proprietor of The Toy Room in Bethel, suggested to the Bethel Shark Sighting group that she would put together deeply discounted toy packages for the sharks, from whatever group members could donate. She started collecting on Saturday, and as of Tuesday, there was more than $600 contributed.

The only problem with Ramsey's otherwise generous plan is that she oversold her ability to get in touch with the finned benefactors. There is no shark-signal in Bethel (yet).

"Then at 11 o'clock one night my husband said, 'There's something outside the door of our house!' And I open it up, and... I've been sharked!" She said the sharks left her a note, saying they would love for The Toy Room to crowdsource their gift-giving.

Still, with all that money changing hands, nothing is known about the Santas in sharks' clothing. Ramsey probably could have easily twisted their fins to reveal their secret identities, but she demurred.

"I really didn't want the mystery spoiled for me," she said. "I think it's fun to try and guess (who they are). I'm sure a lot of us in town know them, we just don't realize that they're doing this."

Of course, every time a couple of mysterious people dress up like marine predators to randomly dance for children, there's always a citizen who gets over zealous and ruins it for everybody, and this time is no different. Lipman shared with her Facebook group a note she received from the sharks:

"We have been followed by cars trying to video us and some have lead to high speed chase getaways. The Sharks are getting scared and considering going back to the sea. This is not safe for us sharks, other drivers and pedestrians of Bethel. We love posing for pictures and videos while we are out and about, but kindly respect the Sharks privacy and protect our identities while arriving or departing in our transportation".

Lipman compared the sharks to COVID-19. No, really, but in a good way: "It's like the virus is so out of everyone's control, and you don't know when that's going to hit, or what's going to happen, and the sharks are out of our control, too. We don't know when they're going to show up!"

Some Bethelites are trying to get these forces of nature in inflatable fish suits on "Ellen," but Lipman's not sure that's a good idea: "I don't know if they're into that." (The sharks, she means. There's no question in anyone's mind that happy dancing land sharks would be right up Ellen's alley.)

"They're pretty shy, they're not in it for the attention," Lipman speculated. "They just want to help, and be kind, and bring joy to the town, and bring people together, and they have!"