Shia LaBeouf is in trouble with the law, once again. The former star of Michael Bay’s Transformers film franchise was arrested early Saturday morning in Savannah, Georgia. Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police booked him with obstruction, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.
According to a police statement (via People), the incident began when LaBeouf approach a bystander and asked him for a cigarette. When the bystander refused the 31-year-old actor’s request, an allegedly intoxicated LaBeouf became “disorderly,” unleashing crude language in earshot of women and children.
“When LaBeouf wasn’t given a cigarette, he became disorderly, using profanities and vulgar language in front of the women and children present. He was told to leave the area and refused, becoming aggressive toward the officer. When the officer attempted to place LaBeouf under arrest, LaBeouf ran to a nearby hotel. LaBeouf was arrested in the hotel lobby, where his disorderly behavior continued.”
LaBeouf was taken into custody around 4 a.m. According to the Chatham County Sheriff's Office, after posting a $7,000 bond, he was released hours later from the Chatham County Detention Center. LaBeouf has been in Savannah filming The Peanut Butter Falcon. The upcoming film also stars Dakota Johnson and Bruce Dern, and follows a down-on-his-luck crab fisherman (LaBeouf) as he embarks on a journey to get a young man with Down syndrome (Zachary Gottsagen) to a professional wrestling school in rural North Carolina and away from the retirement home where he’s lived most of his life.
Over the years, LaBeouf has had numerous brushes with the law, and most of them have involved alcohol. In November 2007, he was arrested for misdemeanor criminal trespassing after refusing to leave a Walgreens in Chicago. LaBeouf later admitted in an interview with David Letterman that he was “pretty wasted” when he entered the drugstore to purchase pimple cream and cigarettes, and lost his cool when he drunkenly assumed the security guard who asked him to leave was laughing at him.
In June 2014, LaBeouf was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass when he caused a disruption during a performance of Cabaret at New York's Studio 54. He reportedly yelled at the actors on-stage, refused to leave the theater, and spit on police officers that escorted him out. After agreeing to a plea deal dropping his trespass and harassment charges, LaBeouf plead guilty to one count of disorderly conduct – which was later withdrawn when he completed alcohol abuse treatment and avoided being arrested in the following six months. He admitted in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel that he consumed too much whiskey before the show.
More recently, this past April, LaBeouf got tossed out of an L.A. bowling alley. TMZ reported that the actor spent three hours drinking one beer after another at Pinz in Studio City, and when he went to a nearby deli, he became upset when the establishment refused to serve him French fries and accused its bartender of being “racist” for refusing to serve him alcohol.
LaBeouf is a talented actor, nobody can deny that, but his continuous troubles with the law and booze have impacted his career. Last September, LaBeouf revealed that director David Ayer approached him for the role of GQ (played by Scott Eastwood) in Suicide Squad, but during a meeting with Warner Bros., he was supposedly told: “Nah, you’re crazy. You’re a good actor, but not this one.”
Source: People