Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez Got Arrested For Choking Out A 22 Year Old Who Was Passing Out Halloween Candy

YardBarker- Mike Vitar, who played Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez in 1993 baseball film “The Sandlot,” was arrested last week in Los Angeles after he and two other men allegedly assaulted a man handing out candy to kids on Halloween.

Vitar is a firefighter and was with a fellow off-duty firefighter, Eric Carpenter, and a third man, Thomas Molnar, when they reportedly attacked a 22-year-old walking down the street handing out candy randomly to kids on Halloween, according to NBC News.

Carpenter allegedly choked the victim, who said he was visiting the neighborhood where he grew up.
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“They believed he posed a danger to children in the area by trying to pass out candy against the consent of the adults,” Arthur Avazian, Molnar’s attorney, told NBC. “These are really good people, two firefighters and my client who is successful businessman.”


You know what my first thought was when I read this story? No, it wasn't "gee, why is there a firefighter going around on Halloween putting kids in chokeholds?". It was "but.....how did they catch him?". We are talking Benny The Jet, soaring around town in his PF Flyers. If the Beast couldn't get this paws on him then how the hell did a police officer? Obviously it only took a few seconds for me to realize that life isn't 'The Sandlot', but for that small moment I was just an innocent little kid again. God, don't you miss those days. The worst thing about getting older isn't leaving your childhood in the past, it's being aware every time someone stomps on your childhood and shatters into a million pieces. You couldn't just let me have this one? Couldn't just not include the man's most prominent child acting role in the news story? Some visions are better left unseen, and everyone's favorite gym class hero as a grown man with his hands cuffed behind his back is undoubtedly one of those visions. What's next? Charlie Conway is drunk in public? Didn't he learn anything from Gordon Bombay's DUI? Doogie Houser likes dudes? But, but, but, he could have had any nurse he wanted!

The crazy part about this is that Benjamin The Jet (no, I will not refer to him by his real name) wasn't wrong. If there is some 22 year old walking through the streets of Los Angeles passing out candy then he should be put in a chokehold. That's not normal behavior for someone his age. That kid should be dressed in some unoriginal outfit, waiting in line to pay far too much money to get into some club so that he can try to fuck a bunch of whores dressed as scantily clad career women. So yeah, I appreciate Benny upholding his societal duty to make sure 10 year old's aren't being given Tootsie Rolls laced with MDMA, but I still don't want to hear about it. I would have been totally fine if he walked straight off the set of 'The Sandlot' and straight into a basement to live in seclusion forever. At least then I would never have to worry about thinking of him as anything other than a local legend...