Besides being able to hit a baseball and run really fast, Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez can also apparently pummel a man who he suspects is involved in nefarious activities. Michael Vitar, the actor-turned-firefighter from The Sandlot, turned on the jets in his fists when he engaged a man whom he apparently saw giving out candy to kids on Halloween. Because, that’s weird.
Vitar and two firefighter buddies escorted the strange, candy-giving gentleman away, but he ran back, and he ran back into a beating that the three men supposedly laid upon him. Eric Carpenter, one of the firefighters, is alleged to have choked the man until he passed out. An attorney for the three men alleges that the victim seemed like he was on drugs.
After he was revived from Carpenter’s sleeper hold, the victim of the thrashing was taken to a hospital. Vitar and his two associates claim that they were merely trying to detain the man, and they were looking out for the well-being of the children. The three men have been released from jail, and could face four-to-seven years respectively for their part in the assault on the stranger.
This is not the first time actors from The Sandlot have gotten into trouble with the law. The actor who played Smalls once head-butted a police officer, and the actor who played “Yeah Yeah” was arrested back in 2009 for putting a beatdown on his girlfriend. Suddenly, it seems like the monster over the fence pales in comparison to the problems that they deal with these days.
(via Page Six)
