You're going to need more than a shovel.
You’re going to need more than a shovel. Fox News/YouTube

Like a modern reenactment of The Neverending Story, in which a horse slowly drowns in the Swamp of Sorrows, a New Jersey man had to save his SUV from sinking into the beach on Tuesday after staging an ill-advised photo shoot.

Video shows the vehicle’s owner futilely trying to dig out the back wheels of the SUV with a shovel while huge waves pummel the opposite side of the vehicle, forcing it deeper into the sand. Christopher Gillich, who shot the video, told NJ.com that he tried to help the 20-year-old but said that he insisted that the truck was waterproof. The driver left the SUV running during the entire ordeal.

Eventually, both State Park Police and a tow truck arrived. After the SUV was freed, the owner simply drove away, despite the fact that the engine was “grinding and cracking, and sizzling, smoking and steaming,” Gillich told NJ.com.

There is no word on how the photos turned out.