Monday, May 10, 2004
New York Post Online Edition: news
A Brooklyn teen - whose mother helped create the popular "priceless" MasterCard ad campaign - has filed a police complaint, claiming he was assaulted by a member of the singer's entourage while waiting for an autograph, and yesterday said he plans to sue the thug for the unprovoked attack.
"I just thought it was ridiculous," said Aidan Thomas, 17, about last Friday's incident outside the Henri Bendel boutique on Fifth Avenue, which sent him to the hospital with a bruised, swollen back.
"What do these people think they're doing? Who do they think they are, treating people like that?"
Thomas, a senior at St. Ann's School in Brooklyn, is the son of McCann-Erickson ad woman Joyce King Thomas. She's a creator of the MasterCard campaign that compares the prices of things bought with the credit card to the "priceless" experience a person has by doing so.
Matthews could not be reached for comment. A police report did not identify the assailant, but detailed Thomas' account and said the suspect was wanted for harassment.
Thomas was among a group of people waiting for Matthews outside the "Late Show with David Letterman" studios on Broadway in the hope that the rocker, who had just taped a performance on the show, would sign guitars they had brought. Thomas sells celebrity-autographed items and said a guitar autographed by the Dave Matthews Band frontman would be worth about $700.
Matthews left the studio, jumped into a limo and went to Bendel's, according to Thomas, who trekked to the store with the other autograph seekers.
Thomas said he was waiting patiently outside the store when Matthews walked out by him at just after 6:30 p.m. At that point, Thomas said, a man in the singer's entourage grabbed him by the shirt collar for no reason, pulled him in front of Matthews, and "threw my spine directly into a pillar, the corner of a pillar, and after he did that, he threw me as hard as he could to the floor."
"It was completely unprovoked," he said, adding that the man ran off into Matthews' limo, which sped off after Thomas told him to stay because he was calling the cops.
Justin Steffman, a photographer who shot pictures of Thomas lying on the ground after hearing him scream, said, "Aidan looked totally shocked." Steffman said neither Thomas nor anyone else did anything to justify being attacked.
A Brooklyn teen - whose mother helped create the popular "priceless" MasterCard ad campaign - has filed a police complaint, claiming he was assaulted by a member of the singer's entourage while waiting for an autograph, and yesterday said he plans to sue the thug for the unprovoked attack.
"I just thought it was ridiculous," said Aidan Thomas, 17, about last Friday's incident outside the Henri Bendel boutique on Fifth Avenue, which sent him to the hospital with a bruised, swollen back.
"What do these people think they're doing? Who do they think they are, treating people like that?"
Thomas, a senior at St. Ann's School in Brooklyn, is the son of McCann-Erickson ad woman Joyce King Thomas. She's a creator of the MasterCard campaign that compares the prices of things bought with the credit card to the "priceless" experience a person has by doing so.
Matthews could not be reached for comment. A police report did not identify the assailant, but detailed Thomas' account and said the suspect was wanted for harassment.
Thomas was among a group of people waiting for Matthews outside the "Late Show with David Letterman" studios on Broadway in the hope that the rocker, who had just taped a performance on the show, would sign guitars they had brought. Thomas sells celebrity-autographed items and said a guitar autographed by the Dave Matthews Band frontman would be worth about $700.
Matthews left the studio, jumped into a limo and went to Bendel's, according to Thomas, who trekked to the store with the other autograph seekers.
Thomas said he was waiting patiently outside the store when Matthews walked out by him at just after 6:30 p.m. At that point, Thomas said, a man in the singer's entourage grabbed him by the shirt collar for no reason, pulled him in front of Matthews, and "threw my spine directly into a pillar, the corner of a pillar, and after he did that, he threw me as hard as he could to the floor."
"It was completely unprovoked," he said, adding that the man ran off into Matthews' limo, which sped off after Thomas told him to stay because he was calling the cops.
Justin Steffman, a photographer who shot pictures of Thomas lying on the ground after hearing him scream, said, "Aidan looked totally shocked." Steffman said neither Thomas nor anyone else did anything to justify being attacked.
