Actor slash “artist” Shia LaBeouf certainly stirs some strong feelings in people. Whether it’s because of his acting, his art, his bad behavior or his bizarre behavior, people seem to have strong opinions about him.
One guy in New York apparently has such strong feelings, negative feelings, about LaBeouf he walked up to a total stranger and knocked him out cold with a punch just because he looks like Shia.
Mario Licato, 26, was just having a normal Saturday when as he was exiting the train a man came out of nowhere and punched him square in the face, knocking him out cold.
“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 didn’t even see the guy. I just see his fist coming towards me. It knocked me, and while I was falling down the stairs, all I hear was, ‘This is because you look exactly like Shia LaBeouf!'”
When he woke up Licato’s face was covered in blood and his glasses were broken.
A couple who stopped to help him said the man was spotted running down the stairs when he hit Licato then jumped on a train.
“I was like, ‘Am I crazy? Or did he just say that happened because I look like Shia LaBeouf?’ And they were like, ‘That’s exactly what he said,” Licato said in retelling his story to People magazine.
Here’s a little shot of the damage this random guy did to his face…
Licato also told People that if he ever caught up to the guy he’d ask him a few questions.
“I would basically just say, ‘So what did Shia LaBeouf ever do to you that you wanted to punch him in the face? Was it one of his performance pieces?’ Did this guy steal his girlfriend? Like, what did he do so bad that he wanted to punch somebody that looked like him?”
Knowing LaBeouf it could be any and/or all of the above.