A California father’s quiet soak in a jacuzzi turned violent when two young suspects allegedly approached from behind, kicked him in the head and fled laughing with his $1,000 iPhone.
Greg Medina, 48, said he had been trying to unwind after a demanding day working as a chef when the seemingly unprovoked attack happened Friday night at the Creekside Village apartments in San Bernardino.
Medina, who recently returned to school, was using earbuds to listen to a class lecture while relaxing in the hot tub.
Moments later, one of the suspects moved in.
“I was listening to the class in earbuds and normally I don’t do that, but this day I decided to, and felt a sharp kick behind my head,” Medina told The California Post.
Surveillance footage recorded the startling attack as it unfolded.
The video shows one suspect walking up to Medina before landing a forceful kick to the back of his head.
A second suspect then bends down and snatches Medina’s phone from the concrete before the pair run away.
The attackers did not say anything to him, Medina said, instead they laughed.
“They thought it was funny to do this to me.”
Medina said the pair laughed again as they ran away.
The stolen phone was a particularly painful loss. Medina had spent more than $1,000 on the new iPhone and had just finished paying it off.
His AirPods were also lost and his glasses were broken during the attack, but Medina said the assault could have ended in tragedy.
“I could have lost consciousness, you know, or I could have been hurt a lot worse and drowned,” he said.
The 48-year-old father managed to track his stolen phone to a neighboring apartment complex and contacted police.
Medina believes the suspects are not residents of his complex and live at the nearby property.
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“They hop the wall and come into our apartment complex. We have a pool.”
Police could not pinpoint the exact apartment because the neighboring complex has roughly 30 to 40 units.
Medina canceled service to the stolen phone.
The brutal attack landed him in the emergency room with a concussion and later a diagnosis of “post concussion syndrome.”
But Medina said he could afford to take just one day off work.
He is a full-time chef, a full-time dad and the sole provider for his 12-year-old daughter.
He works for Lutheran Social Services, preparing meals for homeless people in San Bernardino. His workday starts at 5 a.m., when he begins cooking for the roughly 70 to 75 men he typically serves before wrapping up around 1 or 2 p.m.
After putting in those grueling hours, Medina said the jacuzzi was supposed to be his chance to finally kick back and decompress.
Instead, he ended up concussed, battered and robbed.
“This was a pure act of violence. A pure act of evil.”
Medina said he never got a good look at his attackers but believes they were teenagers or young adults.
Now he hopes someone recognizes the pair and helps police track them down — before they turn their violence on someone even more vulnerable.
“If they’re willing to do that to me, as a 48-year-old grown man, what are they going to do with a senior citizen that’s in there?” he asked. “What are they going to do with someone that’s in a wheelchair?”
San Bernardino police are investigating.
The suspects could face felony charges for assault with a deadly weapon and robbery.
Medina also said he cannot determine whether race played a role in the attack.
“If it was racially motivated, I don’t know. I can’t say.”
But the father said the adults responsible for the young suspects need to take a hard look in the mirror.
“As a parent, it’s our responsibility to teach our children,” he said. “The parents of these young men should be held accountable as well. The buck stops with us as parents.”
