Ex-Mets player says he feared for his life during bizarre Uber incident - 'He's kidnapped me!'
Not long ago, reports emerged that former Mets and Phillies star Lenny Dykstra had been in an incident where he allegedly threatened the life of his Uber driver in New Jersey.
Now Dykstra is getting a chance to tell his side of the story.
Dykstra, who held a news conference outdoors on a Second Avenue street corner in Manhattan on Friday, said, “They don’t call me ‘Nails’ because I’m soft. I was literally in fear of my life, and I called 911 and I was screaming that, ‘This man is crazy. He’s kidnapped me! He’s kidnapped me!’ I said, ‘What are you doing? You’re going to kill me! What are you doing?’
“You’re talking to a guy who has literally planted a flag on Mount Kilimanjaro and stepped in the depths of Death Valley. Did I ever imagine I’d be kidnapped by an Uber driver?”
He said, “All I asked him to do is go to the right destination and he went crazy. … He locked me in the car.”
Dykstra was arrested in May following the incident, where the Uber driver, who claims that he was the one under threat, drove Dykstra to a nearby police station instead of his intended destination, honked his horn and otherwise created a ruckus, and let the cops take it from there.
The outfielder was charged with making terroristic threats and also hit with felony charges for possession of cocaine and MDMA.
On top of that, he also picked up a disorderly persons charge related to the marijuana the police allegedly found on him.
Dykstra appeared in court Friday morning, and in a reversal of fortune as big as any in Dykstra’s life not involving the 1986 World Series, swung the case so hard that now the driver is the one facing criminal charges.
Dykstra maintains that, in his words, “I literally thought this guy was going to kill me,” and the court seemingly agreed with the assessment.
The driver, 47-year-old Brian Lutty, now faces one count of false imprisonment.
What’s more, while no legal action has been officially filed, Dykstra wants answers from Uber about why the company did not “fully investigate their drivers,” MyCentralJersey.com reports.
Turns out, a weird and wild Uber ride just got a whole lot weirder.
Police, meanwhile, have yet another twist to these events.
According to documents from the Linden Police Department obtained by MyCentralJersey.com, “Dykstra then placed a black pill bag with an object [the driver] believed to be a gun to his head and stated ‘take me to Staten Island or I’ll blow your f—ing head off.'”
No evidence exists that would clearly establish one or both men’s stories as true; it seems that this is going to come down to whose story the courts believe.
Charges could be dropped, both guys could end up in the clink, or one could go to jail while the other walks.
The judge is going to have to make the call like a major league umpire calling a play at home plate to determine whether each man is safe … or out.
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