Pieter has a reasonable excuse for his lost wedding ring: a crocodile  ate it, along with part of his left arm. " It took my wedding ring. I think it ate the ring up. " He told a newspaper by telephone from his hospital as he recalled his struggle with a man-eating animal. " I took my horse for an evening swim in one of the farm dams. There are lots of crocodiles and hippos  in the area and they move around all the time,from dam to dam and into the river and out again. I was on the lookout for hippos and didn't see any. It slipped my mind that there might be crocodiles," he said. He was standing in the water about 5 metres away from the shore when he felt a biting jolt  in his left hip. He thought it was a hippo but quickly realized it was a crocodile. " I started to fight immediately. I hit the crocodile with my left arm and then it went for ray left forearm. It pulled me under the water for a few seconds. I realized if I didn't stand up my wife would never find me again. What I didn't realize at the time was that the crocodile let me go because it had taken part of my left arm off,'' said Pieter. With his right arm,Pieter then grabbed the rope of his horse, which took him to safety. He walked 200 metres to his house and his wife took him to the nearest hospital. " I'm lucky I didn't lose too much blood. The biggest problem with a crocodile bite is that it can be septic  .Crocodiles never brush their teeth," said Pieter. Why did the crocodile leave Pieter?
It had taken his wedding ring. It had got part of his left arm. It had been badly hurt. It had found many hippos.