With early-pandemic binge-watch sensation Joe Exotic residing in jail for the next two decades, it appears there’s an opening available for the nation’s resident “tiger king,” Perhaps that’s what Matthew Abraham was auditioning for when he allegedly attempted to enter a Boston zoo’s tiger enclosure.
Abraham, a biology major at Worcester State University, told CBS News that the incident was a misunderstanding.
“The gate shouldn’t have been open, I walked in,” Abraham said. “I didn’t mean to harm anybody, I wasn’t looking to harm the tiger, I wasn’t looking to harm myself neither.”
Massachusetts State Police though say Abraham didn’t simply walk through an open gate. They say he broke in before zoo hours, then ignored a number of warning signs and clambered over several fences to reach the area where he was stopped by security.
Abraham disputes that version of events, saying he didn’t know he was in a restricted area until security stopped him just feet from a tiger.
“When the tiger growled at me, I thought I could be in danger,” Abraham said. “However, there was a fence between me and the tiger, so I wasn’t actually in the enclave with the tiger.”
He also says the only fences he hopped came after he was stopped and reprimanded by security in an effort to leave the restricted area quicker.
However, Abraham said police are correct about his adoration of tigers.
“I was just walking around trying to see if I made eye contact with this tiger, what’s going to happen to me,” Abraham said, adding he wanted to look into a tiger’s eyes to see into his soul.
Abraham was charged with disturbing the peace and trespassing.
“Hopefully it will be forgiven as a misunderstanding because that’s what I believe it was,” Abraham said.
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