Octopus strolling across Topsail Beach sandbar caught on camera

An octopus will generally spend the bulk of its life along the ocean's floor, but every now and then, you may catch one going for a stroll on the beach.

That's what happened to Kris Chapin, a Henrico, Virginia resident who was visiting Topsail Beach recently when she and her family were startled to see the eight-legged creature going for a jaunt.

"First time finding an octopus on the sandbar!" she wrote in a post on her Facebook page, where she shared the video for the social media masses.

She said her son was the first one to see the creature.

An octopus has eight highly flexible and independent arms that it uses to propel itself on land and in water.

Most tend to weigh between 6 and 22 pounds, and they generally inhabit shallow ocean waters.

It was not immediately clear how long the octopus that Chapin filmed had been out of the water or when it returned.

It appears that it was missing one of its tentacles.