New York Man Assaulted for Looking Like Shia LaBeouf

BY Josiah HughesPublished Apr 26, 2016

Despite his brave, artistic acts of self-love, there are still people out there who don't love Shia LaBeouf. In fact, the LaBeouf beef runs so deep that a New York man was recently assaulted just for looking like the Transformers actor.

As Gothamist reports, Mario Licato was having a nice, relaxed Saturday when things suddenly went sour. While walking up the stairs from the F train, he was suddenly pushed. As he tumbled, he overheard his attacker say, "This is because you look exactly like Shia LaBeouf!"

Licato was unconscious, and when he awoke he discovered that his face had been badly bruised and his glasses were broken in half. A couple came to his rescue, and confirmed that the attack was in fact due to his LaBeouf-like features.

"I was so confused," Licato recalled. "I was even more confused because I got up and I was like, am I crazy or did I hear him say, 'This is because you look like Shia LaBeouf?' And [the couple] were like, 'Nope. That's exactly what he said as he was running away from you.'"

Licato describes his attacker as a muscular frat boy in his mid-20s. After attacking Licato, the man escaped onto a train.

Further, Licato says he's been mistaken for LaBeouf "at least 10 times in my life," adding that he doesn't know why the attacker hates Shia so much. "I wanna know what Shia LaBeouf did to him," he said. "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?"

While the real Shia LaBeouf has not yet commented on the attack just yet, we can only hope he approaches the matter with the healing power of art.

Check out Licato's Instagram post about the attack below.

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