It was the nut shot heard around the world in 2011, and we now have the identity of the person who received it.
This video below of a man getting hit in the testicles by a flash grenade fired by the VPD was initially captured on a live CBC broadcast.
It occurred, as you likely remember, during the Stanley Cup riot which happened immediately following the Canucks' tragic loss to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Someone recorded a clip of the news broadcast off of their TV then uploaded it to Youtube.
It went on to capture the hearts - and the groins - of people around the world.
TMZ featured it. The late night talk show hosts of major US networks made light of it. The internet had a field day.
Then it went away.
Despite the flurry of local media coverage around the VPD trying to find people involved in the riots for the weeks and months after, this infamous clip - and the man in it - faded into obscurity.
No news media has ever reported on his identity, as far as I can tell.
Over the years I'd heard rumours of Flashbang Nutshot Guy (FNG) being a local amateur skateboarder who had a high profile at the time. I could never quite pin it down, until recently.
I found an interview FNG did about the incident, granted to a Canadian skateboarding magazine the month the incident took place.
The 2011 headline reads "Flash, Bang, Right in the Nugget: Canadian Skater Hit in the Nuts with Flash Grenade".
"Nugget" is the nickname of skateboarder Nick Moore, who seemingly walked away from life as a sponsored skateboarder in 2017 (watch his retirement video part below).
I was able to get in contact with Moore, who confirmed to me that he is indeed the FNG pictured in the video receiving a gift from the VPD riot squad.
He declined my request for an interview.
In the archival interview he's quoted as saying "I was lucky it hit me in the dick, bounced and then exploded. I was lucky it didn’t explode on contact."
Sure, he's "lucky", but the question on everyone's mind when they watch the video is did it hurt as bad as it looks like it did? And can he still make babies?!
His answer to that was "I didn’t get hurt or anything, my ears were just ringing — I couldn’t hear anything for an hour. It scared the f**k out of me.”
The other question is around his involvement in the riot. What had he done to warrant an exploding projectile to the privates?
According to Moore in the 2011 interview he was simply making his way through the crowd of rioters, trying to find a way out.
"Literally within two seconds it all happened. It hit me, I was on the ground and I ran away. Classic case of the wrong place, at the wrong time."
Flash. Bang. That would be an understatement.
