Hot Since 82 Details Terrifying Car Chase With Gunmen In Brazil: ‘We’d Been Set Up’
In a video statement posted to Instagram over the weekend, longstanding English DJ Hot Since 82 shared the story of a terrifying carjacking attempt he experienced after a gig in Rio de Janeiro over the weekend.
“Left the club at 5 a.m., still dark, 10 minutes into the car journey to the airport, we were being followed and pursued by a gang of jackers, murderers, I don’t know what they are, wearing AK-47s with full magazines” the producer born Daley Padley said in the clip.
More from Billboard
“We’d been set up,” he continued. “They knew exactly where we were, what car and exactly where we were going to be at which time. Which leads me to believe that we were set up.”
He continues that if not for “the heroic maneuvers of our driver, I don’t even know if we’d even be alive right now. I really don’t. We were on a busy motorway, pitch black, the car in front have pressed the brakes for us to stop, and then the people hung out of the car windows with balaclavas and AK47s.”
At this point, the driver put the car in reverse and says, Padley, “we were flying down a busy motorway going the wrong way, weaving in and out of traffic. If the AK-47s shooters didn’t get us, we’re lucky we didn’t have a really bad car crash, because we were weaving in and out of oncoming traffic going 60/70 miles per hour with the car full of AK-47s following us. They were adamant that they were going to get us; they wouldn’t stop. We had to go miles and miles down a motorway in reverse to try to get away from the shooters.”
Padley joked that the situation was like a Fast & Furious movie, but added that “I’m giggling about it, but I’m f—ing broken inside… It makes you lose faith in humanity, knowing that someone has told these shooters where we were going to be. To be honest, I don’t know if I’ll ever come back to Brazil now.”
He continued that after the incident, he changed hotels in case he was still being followed and booked a flight out of the country, missing his scheduled appearances at Warung Day Festival in Curitiba on May 4 and Timewarp Brazil on that same day.
He added that he “can’t risk being in positions like this” given that he has children, adding that his wife is set to give birth to the couples next baby in six weeks. He added that he sympathizes “with the people of Brazil who have to live their lives in fear.”
In the comments, a large group of DJs including Ti?sto, Anabel Englund, Honey Dijon, Jamies Jones, Amelie Laens expressed their support and gratitude that Padley made it out alive and unharmed. Vintage Culture, who is Brazilian, commented that “We work hard to get artists here and those things happen. Hope you are safe; our country is not at all like that, let’s get you back in a better opportunity. Love ya mate. A few bad apples put Brasil in a very difficult position.”
Best of Billboard