GULFPORT, Fla. - A skydiving Santa looking to make a grand entrance while taking an Elf on the Shelf to a 9-year-old girl crashed into a tree and light pole before hitting a Florida beach and breaking his leg.
News outlets say George Krokus was dressed as Santa Claus during a Saturday skydive to deliver toys to the Tampa Bay Beach Bums Operation Santa Charity Volleyball Tournament.
Madison Spiers saw the crash and later found a note from the "elf" named Kristoff who visits her house during the holidays. It said, "As we were about to land this big tree jumped right out in front of us!"
She tells Bay News 9 that Kristoff is no stranger to adventure.
The elf sported a bandaged leg while staying with the recovering Krokus.
**WARNING: disturbing video** So last weekend before work, I walked Duncan down to the beach to watch a little volleyball. As a bonus, a couple of Santas were scheduled to parachute in and land at the tournament. I recorded it so I could send what was sure to be a cool video of skydiving Santas to my nieces and nephew. This happened. The parachuter is recovering from a badly broken leg, but is otherwise in good spirits. I wasn’t sure what to do, if anything, with the video, but when Brittany Russell commented on a FB story about the accident and mentioned that I had a video, the news stations started reaching out. So now that it’s on a few different news stations, I guess it’s okay to put out here. Best wishes for a speedy recovery to this Santa’s Helper.
Posted by September Howat on Monday, 4 December 2017
