Sometimes, looking like a celebrity comes at a price. Art director Mario Licato was sucker punched on his way out of the subway at the Delancey Street station in New York last weekend because of his physical similarity to the Hollywood actor and sometime performance artist Shia LaBeouf.
“This is because you look exactly like Shia LaBeouf,” the attacker reportedly shouted, before running away.
“I was walking up the stairs,” Licato told Gothamist. “I had my head down—there were people in front of me—just to make sure I wasn’t going to fall.”
“I literally just saw a fist for a split second,” he told the New York Daily News.
Licato came to with blood all over his face, before an ambulance arrived to attend to his bruises, which have spread into a black eye.
On hearing of the unfortunate event to befall his doppelganger, LaBeouf got his hands on Licato’s number and left him a heartfelt voicemail, SFGate reports.
“I’m so sorry. But I get it. It’s happened to me before,” LaBeouf told Licato before leaving his number, offering support. “I wish I was in New York. I’d come bring you soup […]. We could chat. Let’s giggle over this. Maybe there’s a silver lining in all this.”
Licato’s attacker, described onlookers as a “6-foot to 6-foot-3 white frat boy,” has not been found.
On being asked whether he had been mistaken for the Transformers actor before, Licato confessed it is indeed a regular occurrence.
“[…] That’s why I knew I wasn’t that crazy,” Licato told Gothamist. “I got it three years ago. I’ve been stopped on the street before, at least 10 times in my life.”
“I wanna know what Shia LaBeouf did to him,” Licato exclaimed, rightfully mystified, before receiving the call from LaBeouf. “What did Shia LaBeouf do to him that he punched somebody that looks like him? He must have did something so mean. Did he steal his girlfriend? Did he just see his last performance art piece?”