CHEVY’S ‘CADDY SMACK’
Actor gets kicked in road-rage face-off
Chevy Chase channeled his inner Clark Griswold on an upstate highway — and got his butt kicked for berating a driver, cops say.
The “National Lampoon’s Vacation” series star was driving north on Interstate 87 near the Mario Cuomo/Tappan Zee Bridge Feb. 9 when he said another motorist cut him off, state police told The Post.
Believing his car was struck by the 2015 Dodge Ram, the actor pursued the truck and flashed his lights at its driver, who pulled over near Exit 10 in South Nyack, cops said.
Chase, 74, realized neither vehi- cle was damaged but wanted to speak to the driver “about his reckless driving,” police said.
He claimed one of the truck’s three passengers cursed at him.
“If I were a lot younger, I’d bust your nose!” the actor said he told the passenger, according to police.
The passenger, Michael Landrio, 22, then allegedly kicked Chase.
Speaking to The Post at his parents’ Long Island home, Landrio, of East Patchogue, said he acted in self-defense after Chase pulled the truck door open in a fit of rage.
Landrio said he, his girlfriend and another couple were headed north to go snowmobiling when a blue Mercedes-Benz flashed its lights and pulled next to them.
“It was an old guy yelling — something we couldn’t hear — super pissed off . . . We just tried to get the heck away from him,” Landrio said. “He followed us the whole length of the bridge, driving crazy.”
Landrio said they stopped after crossing the bridge.
“My friend opened his window and just said, ‘I apologize, we were just trying to go upstate,’ ” he said.
He said Chase yelled, “You know who the f- -k I am?” and “I am going to ruin your lives!” — to which Landrio said he replied, “F--k you!”
“That’s when he yelled, ‘I’m going to punch you in the nose,’ and he came after me and had his hands in my face,” Landrio recalled. “I said, ‘Get the f- -k away from me!’ ”
Landrio said he kicked Chase from inside the Ram, sending him into his Benz and on the ground.
Landrio said he had no idea who Chase was until an off-duty cop told him. “I looked him up on Google,” he said, “and I still didn’t know who he was.”
But Chase’s rep said the actor could not have hit anyone after falling and hurting himself two days earlier while walking his dog.
“[He] needed an MRI and has a small break in his right shoulder,” explained the rep, Heidi Scaeffer. “In other words, he can’t even lift his arm, let alone throw a punch.”
Landrio was charged with second-degree harassment and released on an appearance ticket.