Niamh Shackleton
Members of the public were left in shock when Brad Pitt was kidnapped in front of them.
In early 2002, Fight Club favorite Pitt was minding in his own business while in the queue at Pink's Hot Dogs in Los Angeles, California, when a large black van pulled out of nowhere.
The driver of the car started heckling the actor before a group of men exited the vehicle to grab Pitt and shove him in the van.
Some of the witnesses tried to help the Hollywood star but their efforts were in vain as the apparent criminal gang successfully bundled him up and drove off.
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Video of the shocking incident showed people rushing to call 911 afterwards, but police simply ignored all of their calls.
Why? Because it was all a hoax that Pitt was part of. As to who was behind it all... it was obviously the team behind Jackass.
Pitt was privy to what was going to happen and so were the police. The likes of Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O reached out to the cops in advance so that they'd disregard any calls they got about Pitt being abducted in plain sight.
A clip of the moment that featured on the popular 00s show has been doing the rounds on Twitter of late and people were shocked to see the moment unfold.
"Imagine a citizen carrying a firearm and trying to help," one person pointed out.
Easily one of the best JACKASS episodes was when Brad Pitt joined the fellas so they could fake kidnap him in Hollywood (2002) This bit was such an insane thing to do in front of random pedestrians, with Pitt legit screaming and fighting to get free 😅 pic.twitter.com/GnCnZvDIlK
— Todd Spence (@Todd_Spence) December 29, 2025
"It was a crazy time back in the day pullin those pranks," tweeted another.
Echoing similar sentiments, somebody else said: "Times, they were different back then."
Others a said they remembered seeing the 'kidnapping' when the Jackass episode originally aired over 20 years ago.
"I remember when it aired - it's somehow more funny now than it was then," one person mused.
A second said: "This was then - and probably still is now - the best thing I’ve ever seen."
In a video posted earlier this year to Facebook, Jackass star Stevo-O recalled doing the iconic stunt.
"You would not believe how much crazy sh*t I've done with super famous people," he said.
"Like Brad Pitt," Steve-O went on. "We straight up kidnapped his ass off the sidewalk in front of a bunch of people and it was okay because we planned it ahead of time with the cops who knew to disregard 911 calls about Brad Pitt being kidnapped."
Fellow Jackass alum Chris Pontius has also spoken out about the iconic prank in recent years and hailed it as 'one of the best bits ever' to have happened on the show.