Dylan Sprouse finally set the record straight about whether he tackled an alleged home intruder on his and wife Barbara Palvin’s property earlier this year.
“I never tackled the guy,” the Suite Life of Zack & Cody alum, 33, admitted on the Tuesday, July 14, episode of the “Wildmen” podcast. “Everybody thinks I did and I’m not correcting them. I want people to think I did because it’s cool.”
Reports emerged in April that Sprouse confronted and held down an intruder at his Hollywood Hills home until police arrived on the scene. Once Palvin, 32, called 911, the alleged intruder was reportedly arrested on outstanding warrants and no injuries were reported.
However, Sprouse admitted on “Wildmen” that the entire ordeal was far less dramatic than it sounded — in fact, the night actually started off with the couple opening packs of Pokémon cards.
“Barbara and I were ripping Pokémon packs. She pulls huge,” he recalled. “Flash forward, it’s 12:30 at night, and I’m lying on the couch playing video games … I never lock my front door until I go to bed. I really shouldn’t be saying this, but I’ve started to now, so nice try!”
The actor went on, “So, I’m lying on the couch and I don’t hear him come through the gate. All of a sudden, I’m hearing a rattle on my front door, and the first thought that goes through my head is my dad who comes by anytime he wants, [but] he would never show up at 12:30, because he’s in bed by 8. And the second thought that went through my head is someone’s trying to steal our Pokémon cards!”
Sprouse explained that, within a span of “20 seconds,” he rushed upstairs to grab his 1911 Kimber pistol and warned Palvin to stay out of sight.
“She goes, ‘I’m going to get the police on the phone,’” he recalled, adding that his wife “f***ing killed it” throughout the ordeal.
Within a matter of seconds, Sprouse was back at the front door to confront the alleged intruder.
“I’m standing by the side, and I go, ‘Who’s there?’ again. He goes, ‘Nobody,’” Sprouse remembered. “And I know he’s over there, so I have my gun raised and he walks out and the first thing I notice [as] he comes into the light, he’s walking really slow and he has a cigarette in one hand and a longboard skateboard in the other. That was my immediate lock, I went, ‘He must be kind of tweaking.’”
The Big Daddy star continued, “I go, ‘Hey, follow me. We’re going to go out [of] my property. Walk slow, keep your hands out, like, I don’t want any funny business.’ So, he complies. He’s really mellow about it. He’s not crazy … [He was] on something [and said], ‘Dude, I don’t even know where I am.’”
While Sprouse initially noticed that the alleged intruder had a bulge under his sweatshirt — where a gun holster might be — he soon realized the man was actually just wearing a fanny pack.
“Case closed. Didn’t press charges,” Sprouse clarified. “He got in the slammer because of his previous arrest warrants and I want to have him on the pod.”
Days after the incident, the couple told E! News at the red carpet premiere of The Devil Wears Prada 2 that they were trying to keep their spirits high.
“We’re dealing with the trauma with jokes and fun and all that,” Palvin explained in an April interview.
Sprouse chimed in, “I thought it was funny. This is really to my detriment but I’m really not a ‘too soon’ guy, in general. We’re laughing about things the moment they happen. You’ve got to have levity in life. Thankfully, no one was hurt and there was no more violence.”
Palvin and Sprouse have since celebrated much happier news, announcing in May that they are expecting their first baby. The pair revealed on “Wildmen” that they are having a girl.
