Two teenage boys were handed over to police by their own parents after allegedly attacking a California father as he soaked in a jacuzzi – all for the sake of a TikTok video.
Greg Medina, 48, was relaxing in a hot tub at the Creekside Village apartments in San Bernardino last week when two 13-year-old boys ambushed him, kicking him viciously in the back of the head and stealing his iPhone, according to police.
The unprovoked assault sent the single father to the emergency room with a concussion, while police spent days searching for the culprits.
Both boys were arrested on felony charges Friday after their own parents turned them in to police, authorities said, though their identities remain protected because of their age.
One of the teens' fathers first contacted Medina through Facebook, telling him his son was involved in the violent attack before turning him over to detectives, The New York Post reported.
Medina later met the teens and their families at the jail, where he learned the bizarre motive: the boys had allegedly been trying to film a TikTok video when they attacked him and took his phone to stop him from calling 911.
'I was glad to get an answer but disappointed TikTok was the reason,' Medina said.
'You’re doing this and you’re not realizing that there’s a real person behind this,' he added.
Two unidentified 13-year-old boys were handed over to police by their own parents on Friday after allegedly attacking a California father last week as he soaked in a jacuzzi
The victim, single father Greg Medina, 48, was sent to the emergency room with a concussion after the attack
Surveillance footage captured one teen kicking Medina viciously in the back of the head and the other stealing his iPhone
Despite the violent encounter, he said he accepted the boys' apologies and even shook their hands at the end of the conversation, describing both the teens and their fathers as 'very respectful.'
'These boys did something very serious and need to be held accountable,' Medina told NBC 4 News. 'I'm just happy that they took ownership of it, and I wasn't hurt more than I was.'
The arrests came exactly one week after the August 14 attack, when he was enjoying a quiet solo soak in his apartment complex's hot tub to unwind after a long day as a chef feeding the homeless.
Medina had recently returned to school and, on this particular night, put in his earbuds to listen to a lecture while relaxing – something he said he typically wouldn't do.
'This day I decided to and felt a sharp kick behind my head,' he recalled, according to KTLA. 'I saw the kids off in the distance, really didn't pay much attention to them.'
Surveillance video captured the moment the two boys crept up behind Medina, with one delivering a brutal kick to the back of his head as the other reached down and grabbed his phone from the concrete.
He said the boys never said a word during the assault, instead laughing as they continued the attack before running away.
'They thought it was funny to do this to me. This was a pure act of violence. A pure act of evil,' Medina told The Post at the time.
Medina later learned at the jail that the teens had allegedly attacked him as they attempted to film a TikTok video, stealing his phone so he couldn't call 911, he said
One of the teens' fathers first contacted Medina through Facebook, telling him his son was involved in the violent attack before turning him over to detectives
'As a parent, it’s our responsibility to teach our children,' he added. 'The parents of these young men should be held accountable as well. The buck stops with us as parents.'
Medina managed to pinpoint the stolen phone to a nearby apartment complex and called police, telling them he did not believe the teens were residents of his own complex.
'They hop the wall and come into our apartment complex. We have a pool,' he explained, according to the outlet.
But the phone's trail ultimately led nowhere, with authorities unable to narrow its location down to a specific apartment and suspecting it may have been ditched.
'Being that it’s a nice-sized complex with about 30 or 40 units, they couldn’t track it down to a single unit,' Medina told KTLA.
The assault left him without his AirPods, which were lost during the struggle, and his glasses, which shattered when he was struck.
Losing his phone was especially painful, as Medina had shelled out more than $1,000 for the new device and had just finished paying it off in full.
But Medina said the attack could have had deadly consequences, turning what apparently was meant to be a TikTok stunt into a tragedy.
Both teens were booked into Juvenile Hall, where the boy accused of kicking Medina faced robbery and battery charges. The second suspect was booked only on robbery
The ER doctors diagnosed Medina with a concussion, but as the sole provider for his 12-year-old daughter, he said he couldn't afford to stay home from work for more than a day
'I could have lost consciousness or I could have been hurt a lot worse and drowned,' he told KTLA.
The ER doctors diagnosed Medina with a concussion, but as the sole provider for his 12-year-old daughter, he said he couldn't afford to stay home from work for more than a day, even as he continued to feel unwell.
'I've been having a lot of dizzy spells, headaches and got diagnosed with post-concussion disorder,' he told the outlet.
Medina earns a living as a full-time chef for Lutheran Social Services, cooking meals for unhoused people at the nonprofit's San Bernardino location.
'An average morning, I serve about 70, 75 men,' he said. 'I start at 5am and I usually end about one, two o'clock.'
The San Bernardino Police Department released photos of the two suspects captured by the complex's security cameras as authorities and Medina urged anyone who recognized them to come forward.
'If they're willing to do that to me, as a 48-year-old grown man, what are they going to do with a senior citizen that's in there? What are they going to do with someone that's in a wheelchair?' the father told KTLA.
With no sign of his phone, Medina canceled the service as police launched their investigation into the attack. A week later, both boys were hauled into the police station by their parents.
Medina said he accepted the boys' apologies and even shook their hands at the end of the conversation, describing both the teens and their fathers as 'very respectful'
The incident unfolded August 13 at the Creekside Village apartments in San Bernardino
Both teens were booked into Juvenile Hall, where the boy accused of kicking Medina faced robbery and battery charges. The second suspect was booked only on a robbery charge.
'I don’t have to worry about them being out on the streets now, there is a sense of relief from that,' Medina told The Post following their arrests.
Shortly after, Medina met with the teens, their fathers and other family members at the jail, where he said they ultimately embraced after he told the boys he forgave them.
'They apologized to me. I don’t hate them. These are two young men that need help,' he told KTLA.
'These boys did something very serious and need to be held accountable. I'm just happy that they took ownership of it, and I wasn't hurt more than I was.'
