Darren Till Reminisces About Tenerife Taxi Incident
UFC middleweight contender Darren Till has revealed exactly what happened when he spent four days in a Tenerife jail.
In April 2019 various news outlets reported Till was arrested in the Canary Islands after trashing a hotel room and stealing a cab. ‘The Gorilla’ and four of his friends were ultimately sentenced on charges of criminal damage and unlawful use of a motor vehicle and forced to pay a hefty fine. Speaking with James English, Till opened up about the incident, he said.
“I’ll tell you the gods honest truth about this story. I won’t hold nothing back. I actually wasn’t meant to go on this trip. They were going for one of our mates birthdays to Tenerife and they told me about it.
“As I said, I wont just go out and drink five pints.” Till added. I’ll go out and drink 100 pints and steal taxis. That’s what I do, that’ my thing… I just jumped on the holiday. Got there, five-star hotel. Got in the room (it was) fucking lovely, lavish.
“We went out to the strip in Tenirife, everyone knew me! ‘Yes Darren’, buying me shots so that was it, just going fucking insane. (We) ended up in this proper exclusive bar. We were just going mental.
After a wild night out Till described how things went downhill when he and his friends got back to the hotel, he said.
“Got a taxi back to the hotel…I’m actually quite embarrassed talking about this. It’s funny but I shouldn’t have done it. We’ve destroyed the room. We’re throwing mattresses off the balcony. Then some guy. I think my mate actually has a video. Some guy has started shouting. I’ve got a deck chair and threw it off the balcony.
“We’ve grabbed our suitcases before the hotel staff could come and went out the fire exit. We’ve gone up this hill. We’ve went to another hotel. We’ve rang another taxi to the hotel.
Once the taxi arrived Till described how a simple error from one of his friends turned into a joy ride and a subsequent four-day stint in a Tenerife jail, he said.
“As this taxi’s come, I’ve sat in the back of the taxi. We’re all loading our suitcases into the back. One of my friends has jumped into what he thought was the passenger’s side but it was the driver’s side. Over there it’s the other side. And I’ve went, ‘What are you doing?’ He went ‘ahh fucking hell I thought it was the passenger’s side, fuck it anyway.”
“He went on a whole trip around the island. He was doing donuts and skids. I’m in the back crying. ‘Stop the taxi please! We’re gonna get fucked.’ He’s skidded the taxi bombed it out. So I’ve ran the other way. I’ve thought I need to get away from him.. he’s come back. He’s drawn attention and next minute these busies (police) pulled up and they knew straight away. They had there guns out. They all knew who I was. They were big fans and that but any excuse to arrest me they were gonna arrest me.”
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