Benedict Cumberbatch is best known for playing a hero in the BBC series "Sherlock" and the Marvel movie "Doctor Strange" but, while taking an Uber in London recently, he stopped a crime in real life: He jumped out of the car to help a young delivery man being mugged by four other men.
"He stood there instructing them in the street, shouting, 'Leave him alone'. It was only then I recognized Benedict," Uber driver Manuel Dias, 53, tells British newspaper The Sun. "The cyclist was lucky, Benedict's a superhero."
Cumberbatch, 41, and his wife Sophie Hunter were reportedly taking an Uber to a club, Dias says, when the actor spotted a food delivery cyclist being pushed around and Cumberbatch "sprinted into the fray" to pull the men away from the bloodied cyclist.
"Then it all got a bit surreal. Here was Sherlock Holmes fighting off four attackers just round the corner from Baker Street," Dias says.
Baker Street is where Cumberbatch's fictional character Sherlock Holmes lives. The Uber driver helped when things looked like they were getting worse but Cumberbatch "seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He was very brave. He did most of it, to be honest," Dias says.
The delivery man was reportedly hit over the head with a bottle and his own helmet before Cumberbatch was able to pull him away from the muggers, and the muggers tried to punch the actor as well before fleeing the scene. As to why he intervened in the first place, Cumberbatch tells The Sun, "I did it out of — well, I had to, you know." When asked by The New York Times to say more, Cumberbatch declined.
Although the alleged incident took place in November of 2017, details of Cumberbatch's involvement were reported by The Sun on June 2. Deliveroo, the company which employed the food delivery cyclist, has posted a tweet thanking Cumberbatch for his "brave actions."
This isn't Cumberbatch's first run in with danger. In 2013, he told Hollywood Reporter about the terror he had felt when he was kidnapped by armed robbers in South Africa, only to be rescued by a stranger. Escaping mortal danger and having to appreciate life again "really, really enriches your values," he says. "It's incredibly important."
Now it seems Cumberbatch may have paid it forward.
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