Birthday destruction.
A Florida man cited his 21st birthday as he tried to explain destroying a New York City taxi in Manhattan after the Knicks’ historic Game 4 comeback in the NBA Finals.
Saul Vargas accepted a plea deal Thursday on a disorderly conduct charge after video showed him shirtless, jumping on the hood and roof of a yellow cab and smashing its front windshield. The incident occurred June 11, as thousands of Knicks fans poured into the streets around Madison Square Garden.
“I just want to be 21,” Vargas said as he left a Manhattan courtroom, according to the Daily Mail.
“At the end of the day, I’m 21. I was being a kid, I was being stupid,” he added, acknowledging that his birthday was no justification for the damage. “It was my birthday, I was trying to have fun, but that’s not a good excuse.”
Vargas also expressed regret to cabdriver Noueddine Bitat, who was caught up in the chaotic celebration.
“To the taxi driver, I do apologize. It’s something no driver should have to go through,” Vargas said.
Bitat, 59, was driving along Seventh Avenue near 36th Street at about 12:30 a.m. when a crowd surrounded the vehicle and pulled him from the cab.
“The crowd came and they attacked him. They grabbed him out of the cab. They grabbed him by the neck. Someone punched him in his head,” Bitat said through a translator at the time.
“They shattered the windshield. They opened the front doors and even the trunks. They were yelling, ‘Knicks in five! Knicks in five!’”
Vargas, who is from St. Cloud, Fla., joined other unruly fans atop the vehicle. Among them were a man wearing a keffiyeh and another holding a Palestinian flag, both photographed perched on the damaged cab.
Bitat suffered a diabetic attack and said he was left with “a lot of trauma.”
The Algerian-born driver said he did not plan to return to his chauffeur job after the assault, adding that he was “lucky to be alive.”
“It’s just that from what happened, he couldn’t believe doing a job like this could be so risky.”
As part of the plea agreement, Vargas was ordered to pay $500 in restitution.
The Knicks went on to win the NBA Finals in Game 5 two nights later, after erasing a record 29-point deficit in the closing minutes of Game 4 and sparking the massive celebration.
OG Anunoby was the hero, sending New York into a frenzy with a tip-in with 1.2 seconds remaining after rebounding a missed three-point attempt by Finals MVP Jalen Brunson.
Police began searching for Vargas on a criminal mischief charge after video of the incident went viral.
After learning he was wanted, the alleged birthday celebrant turned himself in to police shortly before returning to Florida.
