As noted, David Otunga left the gym earlier this week to find a thief with a knife going through his car. Above is new video of the WWE announcer talking to TMZ Sports about the incident.
“I go and I open the driver’s side door to get in and there’s a guy sitting in my car, and he’s nervous, because when I opened the door I’m startled to see somebody and he’s startled to see me obviously,” Otunga said. “I couldn’t see anybody because of the window tints. So dude jumps up and he’s in my face, and in my mind I’m like, ‘Holy crap!’ There’s all this stuff going through my head. I’m like, ‘OK, does he have a gun, a knife? He has to have something.’ And because it’s in a parking garage, the spaces are tight so there’s just this little bit of room we’re both standing in. I’m like, ‘If he’s got anything, he’s going to get me. … I’ve got to strike first.’ All of this is going through my mind. So I go to yoke him up and dude just starts pleading with me, ‘No, no, I’m sorry, please don’t hit me, don’t hit me, don’t hurt me, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’ He just goes to pieces on me. He’s like, ‘Look, I was just trying to steal some things to sell to make some money, I’m sorry. Here, here, here is your stuff.’ So I’m standing there and I almost feel bad for him. I’m so pissed off, ready to tear dude’s head off, and he’s pleading with me. So, I shoved him and he ran off, gave me my stuff back and took off.”
Otunga said he did fear for his safety, despite his own size & athleticism, calling it a scary situation.
“Yeah, oh no, absolutely,” Otunga said when asked if he was afraid for his own safety. “In that situation it was a fight or flight response. It happens so fast but it seems like everything slows down. I was like, ‘This guy could kill me, I got to get him, I got to get him. That’s it.’ You always wonder what you’re going to do in that situation but when you’re in it and you’re confronted with it, you just act. You have to. It’s just a protective instinct in me and I had to get him.”
Otunga also talked about finding the thief’s knife in the car after the man ran off..
“Once I chased the guy away, I get in the car and the car is trashed, he threw my stuff everywhere,” Otunga said. “There’s a knife sitting right there, in the center console, like out. The dude had a knife, he could’ve stabbed me, he could’ve tried it, but he didn’t I mean, that was the biggest thing and I just thank God it wasn’t my time. Also, that further reinforces the fact that I had to strike when I did because had he been holding the knife, that could’ve been it.”
For those who missed it, below is Otunga’s original post on the incident:
I had a close call last night when I was leaving the gym. Having just finished a killer shoulder workout, I was all pumped up as I walked out to my car. When I opened my car door, I discovered a man sitting in my driver’s seat stealing my things! I startled him just as much as he startled me and he jumped up in my face. In that split second I had a million thoughts running through my head as I assessed the situation: “Does he have a gun? A knife? It’s either going to be him or me who walks out of this, and it damn sure is going to be me!” So my reaction was to yoke him up! To my surprise, he responded by pleading to me for mercy! WTF?! He begged me not to hurt him and to let him go! He then frantically handed me back my AirPods, a portable charger, and an old bottle of lotion that had been in my car (Random. I know). I watched him scurry away terrified and then I noticed that in his haste, he left behind a knife sitting on the armrest. That showed me just how close I was to things possibly turning out differently as he could have easily used it against me. I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t use the knife and my buddy said to me, “Are you serious? Do you know what you look like in the gym? If you walked up on me with those muscles and grabbed me, I’d plead for my life too!” Lol. I guess my delt pump helped save my life last night (I’m still trying to figure out how he got around the alarm and electronic locks to get into my car in the first place. It sounds like an inside job, if you know what I mean.)
