Not all heroes wear capes — but some heroes do float on inflatable rainbow unicorns.
A West Des Moines man is turning heads on the internet after he posted a video on Twitter of himself saving a baby goose from a snapping turtle in a pond while floating on a unicorn tube.
Cary Coppola, 36, got into the zany situation this week when he and his family were driving to Des Moines to visit his brother.
As they drove past some homes north of Des Moines Golf and Country Club, something caught their eyes: a gosling was floundering in a pond, struggling to keep its head above water.
Coppola quickly went to his brother's home, changed into swim trunks and returned with the unicorn in hand to perform a water rescue.
He thought he would have to untangle the goose from fishing line or a trap. Instead a snapping turtle's head also burst out of the water.
"It was just a huge head," Coppola said. "The turtle wasn't letting go."
He brought the gosling to shore where he and his brother coaxed the turtle off the baby.
After stumbling for a little bit, the gosling ultimately got a happy ending as a flock of geese swarmed the baby.
"At the end it's a great story because it makes people smile," Coppola said.
Since Coppola posted the video on Twitter, he's garnered attention from around the country. ABC News reached out to Coppola to retweet his video, while an Irish news outlet wrote a story about the wild rescue.
While some have criticized his interference with the circle of life, Coppola said he hopes people get joy from the wackiness of the tale.
"I think the variable is that I'm a grown man on a unicorn," he said. "I think that's the magic there."
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