Benedict Cumberbatch is a real-life superhero.
That's according to Uber driver Manual Dias, who recently recounted to The Sun how the "Sherlock" star jumped out of the car to help a Deliveroo cyclist who was being attacked by a group of four would-be muggers.
The incident reportedly happened in November, but it seems Uber just caught wind of it and posted a company thank you to the actor on social media.
The Uber was driving Benedict and his wife, Sophie Hunter, through the neighborhood where Benedict's Sherlock Holmes' character lives in London when the Benedict saw the cyclist being hit over the head with a bottle and punched by his attackers.
According to the driver, who told The Sun (via Us Weekly), "the cyclist was lucky, Benedict's a superhero," and other eyewitnesses, Benedict ran towards the muggers hollering, "leave him alone," then pulled the four of them off the cyclist, who was by then covered in blood.
When the muggers tried to punch Benedict, he thwarted their advances and they ran off.
"I went to turn down into Marylebone High Street and we saw four guys were pushing around a Deliveroo cyclist. My passenger jumped out, ran over and pulled the men away. They turned towards him and things looked like getting worse, so I joined in," the Uber driver recalled.
"It was only then I recognized Benedict. Then it all got a bit surreal. Here was Sherlock Holmes fighting off four attackers just round the corner from Baker Street. I had hold of one lad and Benedict another. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He was very brave. He did most of it, to be honest," he continued.
"They tried to hit him but he defended himself and pushed them away. He wasn't injured," the driver said. "Then I think they also recognized it was Benedict and ran away. Benedict was courageous, brave and selfless. If he hadn't stepped in the cyclist could have been seriously injured. He asked the rider how he was and when he said, 'I'm OK' Benedict just hugged him."
This weekend, Deliveroo thanked the actor publicly for defending their employee.
As the story spread, the Twitterverse weighed in to praise Benedict for his courageous act, as well.
"Mad respect to those who do what's right and instinctively defend injustice," Rose McGowan tweeted. "Bravo to the driver and get well soon to the @Deliveroo employee. Yesterday I performed with the cast of @LettersLive and Benedict C himself. He said not a word about this. 🙌 "
Other folks, like user Ben Krake set about finding the perfect GIF to capture the art imitating life … imitating art situation:
As a Twitter user named Emily astutely noted, the pseudo muggers might not wanna quit their day jobs:
Truth.