Mike Tyson was ticketed by Las Vegas’ Metro police early Thanksgiving morning for damaging property with his automobile. According to KTNV News, Tyson, who was driving a black Escalade, pulled up to the visitor’s gate of Monarch Estates, an upscale gated community at 7:45 am. Instead of driving through the gate when it opened, the former heavyweight champ veered off and hit the gate as it was closing. Tyson reportedly backed up, which caused the gate to be ripped down. Police arrived and issued the ticket. No one was injured, and Tyson was allowed back inside to the home he was there to visit.
Tyson’s misadventures involving moving vehicles have long been documented: In 1997 he suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung when his motorcycle skidded on a Connecticut highway. And in 1988, he knocked himself unconscious when he slammed his BMW into a tree in Catskill, NY. At the time, media reports were that Tyson tried to commit suicide - an act that supposedly was sparked by a fight with his then wife Robin Givens. However, a different version of that event was once told to Fightnews by Tyson’s former trainer Kevin Rooney: "Mike wanted to go into town to buy some magazines," he said. "It was raining out and Camille (Ewald) told him not to go because it could be dangerous. But he goes anyway. He gets in and starts the car, but its stuck in the mud. The wheels were spinning, so he floors the gas pedal. The car breaks free and it goes flying forward right into the tree in the front yard! Mike bangs his head on the steering wheel and knocks himself out. Camille, she was standing there on the front porch, she saw the whole thing and thought Mike was dead! Suicide? Nah, Mike just don’t know how to drive."