LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — Joe Cash thought the ride of his life, might be his last ride.
Cash really didn’t want to go on the Slingshot ride in the first place but his girlfriend wanted to.
“I surprised her at the Slingshot because she’s been wanting to get on it,” Cash said outside the Polk County Courthouse, where he works security. “I didn’t wanna get on it. I didn’t realize I was that scared until I started seeing people get on it and fly through the air like real quick.”
Joe and his girlfriend Alexandra boarded the Slingshot ride at a park in Orlando and everything seemed okay, until the ride operator told them there was a problem with the seatbelts.
The next thing Cash knew, he was airborne.
The video of the ride, which has now been seen on social media by millions, shows Cash screaming and waving his arms as if to try and fly away.
“Out of nowhere, like the thing just…Zoom. I’m there, I’m trying to fly. I thought it was broke,” said Cash, motioning his arms like a bird. “I thought it was the last breath of the day.”
Once the ride ended, Cash realized the joke was on him. Initially, laughter wasn’t his first expression. He says he was a bit angry and gave the ride operator a piece of his mind.
“I was like, man, why you did that to me? I really thought I was going to die!”
At the same time, Cash heard others laughing in line for the ride watching his video.
“And everybody is looking at the camera, where they show you the video and I’m talking about a whole group. They were just looking and laughing,” he said.
Cash asked the ride operator again, why him?
“And I”m like, why you did that to me like that?” he said. “And I was still crying a little bit too.”
Cash is now a bit of a celebrity. The video has reached millions. He and his girlfriend have already appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and he says others talk shows have been in contact.
“I always told my teacher, I would be on national television one day,” Cash said. “And she was like, you were on TV. I’m proud of you.”
