Wild Video Shows Shark Swimming Up A New Jersey Driveway As Rare Storm Turns Streets Into The Ocean

Just when you thought it was safe to stay on dry land.

A shark was filmed cruising through floodwaters outside homes on the Jersey Shore as a rare September nor’easter slammed the coast, sending bay water sloshing into streets, driveways and front yards.

The clip making the rounds Monday shows a dark fin cutting through murky water between houses, picket fences and a garage door as rain keeps coming down. Overlay text on one version of the video calls it a shark “on the streets of Atlantic City.”

Local reports put the sighting in Surf City on Long Beach Island, where Barnegat Bay spilled over and turned quiet blocks into a temporary inlet.“Is that a little shark?” a woman can be heard asking in footage obtained by news outlets. “Oh my God, he’s coming this way.”Luckily, these jaws had no bite.

Marine experts identified the visitor as a smooth dogfish, a small, common coastal shark that doesn’t pack the teeth or attitude of a great white. Dr. Greg Skomal, a white shark researcher with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, told ABC News the fish is “very small” and “harmless” and routinely lives in those waters. It reportedly swam up a resident’s driveway before heading back toward the bay.

The timing was the real shock. A slow-moving nor’easter, unusual this early in the fall, piled rain on top of storm surge and high tides. Some Shore towns saw water two to four feet deep. Atlantic City recorded its highest water levels since Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Beaches took a beating, dunes vanished in spots, cars sat submerged, and crews pulled people out of flooded motels and homes.

Officials warned residents to stay out of the dirty water even after the shark clip went viral. Floodwaters can hide debris, sewage and live wires. The dogfish was the headline. The storm was the story.

By Monday, the system was still lingering with more rain and high tides possible. Power outages stretched into the tens of thousands across the Northeast at points over the weekend. No deaths were reported in New Jersey from the flooding, but one New York City worker was killed when a tree came down Saturday.

For Shore locals used to wet basements and “nuisance flooding,” this one felt different: a Pac-Man of a tide chewing the beach, boats in the street, and a shark treating a driveway like the shallows.

Harmless or not, nobody wants Jaws as a neighbor when the bay decides to move in.