How 16ft great white shark ‘Rosie’ was left to rot in tank of formaldehyde as owner lifts lid on dead ‘pet’ in backyard

FROZEN in time, Rosie the great white shark was left to rot in a glass tank until Tom Kapitany saved her – now displaying her proudly in a car park in Australia.

Feared to have eaten a missing woman, forgotten and abandoned in a crumbling building, this 16ft great white shark is now lovingly cared for by “eccentric” natural history lover Tom.

People have certainly raised an eyebrow at Tom, 65, for keeping his pet in the car park of his crystal and rock trade business in Devon Meadows, about an hour outside of Melbourne, Australia.

Tom, a geologist, botanist and entrepreneur, has spent thousands to display the apex predator, lovingly nicknamed Rosie, in a tank of glycerine after saving her from destruction six years ago.

Tom doesn’t expect people to “get” why he saved Rosie – his “dead pet shark”.

He told The Sun: “I’m just a crazy old guy who likes rocks and dead sharks.

“It would be sacrilegious if she had been buried in landfill. Doesn’t everyone want a shark preserved in their backyard?”

Tom’s love of the weird and wacky developed in childhood, having grown up in the bush and encouraged by his father who shared a love for nature.

He said: “I collected all sorts of weird odd things as a kid. I grew up with reptiles and animals around me. My father encouraged my love of the natural world.”

As a kid, Tom even played around with preserving snakes.

According to Tom, Rosie was a “young angry” shark who got caught up in tuna fishing nets off the coast of South Australia in 1997.

Despite attempts to free her, she was sadly euthanised and her body kept by the fishing company owners to sell for educational purposes.

She was stored in a freezer while institutes across the country expressed interest in buying the rare, near-perfect specimen.

A small wildlife theme park near tourism hotspot Phillip Island, in Victoria, won the bid and the 900-miles journey to her new home began.

But during transportation, authorities intercepted her to perform an autopsy when they feared she may have eaten a woman missing off the South Australian coast.

No trace of human remains were found inside of her.

Rosie eventually made it to Wildlife Wonderland, Bass, a purchase thought to cost nearly £246,880 ($500,000AUD) where she was homed until it was shut down by authorities in 2012 amid welfare concerns.

Some 130 animals were rescued, the operators evicted from the property and the grounds abandoned.

Rosie the Shark was left behind in the ruins, forgotten in time.

I’m just a crazy old guy who likes rocks and dead sharks

Tom Kapitany

Years passed before Rosie captured the world’s attention when urban explorer Luke McPherson uploaded a YouTube video discovering her in 2018.

The video follows McPherson roaming the derelict site until he stumbles across Rosie eerily floating in her tank, the pumps still circulating the highly toxic fluids to keep her from rotting.

The tank emitted a green glow when back lit by torches and she was surrounded by a mess of broken junk from the long-neglected theme park.

The creepy YouTube video amassed 17million views and daredevils across the world flocked to the deserted wildlife park take a piece of Rosie home.

Tom said: “People opened the tank up and were using hedge trimmers to try break teeth out of Rosie’s mouth.

“It’s a 20ft long tank the size of a shipping container filled with formaldehyde and kids were throwing rocks at the glass.

“Had they broken the glass, they would have been killed.”

People opened the tank up and were using hedge trimmers to try break teeth out of Rosie’s mouth

Tom Kapitany

Someone had even thrown a TV into her tank.

A year of vandalism of her tank was putting thrill seekers at risk of harm from the toxic chemicals keeping her from decay.

It also took a toll on Rosie’s body.

The landowner was going to have Rosie destroyed to prevent trespassers from getting hurt.

When Tom heard she was going to be destroyed, he jumped at the chance to save her.

Tom first saw Rosie seven years earlier, when he toured the abandoned theme park with the thought of buying the property.

Although the sale never happened, the memory of Rosie floating in her “green slimy tank” stayed with Tom long after the visit.

In 2019, he paid for Rosie to be craned out of the crumbling shed at Wildlife Wonderland and disposed of the contaminated and carcinogenic formaldehyde from her tank.

He even had to employ 24 hour security as the move made headlines across the country.

She is now cleaned up and proudly displayed at Crystal World Exhibition Centre where she has been visited by fans from across the world, as far as Brazil, India and Canada.

The Rosie the Shark Facebook page has 52,000 followers and Tom describes it as a supportive, like-minded community.

Her tank remains in the car park as Tom awaits permits to build a special viewing gallery which he hopes will attract school children and education groups.

Some of Rosie’s stolen items from her display at the wildlife park have even been donated to Tom and he hopes to include them in the gallery, along with other shark fossils and relics from across Australia.

Tom said: “We don’t charge people to see Rosie.

“It was never about making money out of her. If anything she’s cost me a significant amount of money.

“[I hope] it will help people understand that these are beautiful creatures which have lives and we shouldn’t destroy their home.”