Not all heroes wear capes; some wear pajamas, like this woman who recently rescued a starfish from her balcony.
Sophie Cunningham was startled when she woke up on the morning of September 8 to discover the most-unusual guest waiting. Unprepared for such an encounter, Cunningham didn't exactly have the right tools on hand.
Still in her nightwear, she grabbed the only thing she could find: a chopping board. With it, she carefully transported the stranded creature back to the sea.
Cunningham's quick-thinking rescue was captured on video and shared to TikTok (@sophiecunninghaam), where it has racked up more than 461,000 views in just 24 hours.
"The chopping board is in the bin," Cunningham commented on her clip. "I don't think I could make my dinner knowing a starfish has been on it."
The mystery of how the starfish landed on her balcony remains unsolved. One viewer wrote that a sea gull may have snatched it from the shore before accidentally dropping it midflight. "Poor thing," the commenter added.
What To Know About Starfish
Despite their name, starfish—also known as sea stars—are not fish at all, but marine invertebrates, a group that also includes sea cucumbers and sea urchins.
Instead of blood, sea stars use seawater to circulate nutrients throughout their bodies via a water vascular system. They lack gills, scales, and fins, and they can survive only in saltwater environments.
Cunningham later said that, after a quick online search, that the starfish was still alive when she returned it to the ocean.
Sea stars are surprisingly resilient. The National Marine Aquarium says that they can live for up to 35 years, with larger species generally outlasting smaller ones. If injured, they can regenerate lost limbs—a process that can take up to a year.
TikTok Reacts
At the time of writing, the video has earned almost 40,000 likes and thousands of comments from amused and admiring viewers.
"Racing toward the beach in your pj's to save a starfish is the GREENEST of green flags. You awesome human," wrote one TikTok user.
Another posted: "I hope you made a wish since it was a falling star."
One commenter reflected on the rarity of the encounter, writing: "This has to be a unique experience."
A fourth wrote from the starfish's perspective: "His friends will never believe him: 'How I escaped the chopping board.'"
Newsweek reached out to @sophiecunninghaam for comment via TikTok. We could not verify the details of the case.