ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — Houston, Texas, native Fawaz Odunbaku didn’t think a night of fun with friends would end with a damaged water pipe in Northern Virginia, nor did he think the incident would go viral.
Video shared by the George Mason University Police Department earlier this week showed the 21-year-old attempting a pull-up on a water pipe in its Arlington, Va., parking garage before it burst, spreading water and scattering his friend group. Moments before, the group, who are also Texas residents, had been dancing and laughing.
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“It’s one of those things that happens in movies that you don’t really consider happening in real life,” Odunbaku said in hindsight. He said there were plenty of lessons to have been learned that night, and he was glad no one got hurt.
Odunbaku spoke to 7News on Thursday about the incident after a friend of his reached out.
He said he and his friends were visiting the region for the weekend, starting in Baltimore, Maryland, and through D.C. before ending up in Arlington for a party.
“We were trying to have a good time, we got out of the van still in high spirits,” Odunbaku said. “You can see us dancing around, jumping around,” he added, referring to the now viral video.
At some point where they were dancing, Odunbaku said he initially jumped on the water pipe to do a pull-up, before others in the group also attempted to do so. It was during his second pull-up attempt that the pipe broke.
“After I did my first set, a couple of my peers did the exact same thing and it was until I went to do my second set that the pipe eventually broke,” Odunbaku said.
Video shared by George Mason police showed a person appearing to jump down from the pipe before Odunbaku jumped back up.
Officers at the university are asking for help finding the people responsible for damaging a water line inside George Mason University’s campus parking garage in late March. (George Mason University Police Department)
After the pipe broke, the video showed the group scattering. Odunbaku said his heart dropped. The group ended up getting back into the van and moving to another parking area, but made an effort beforehand to locate the proper authorities, he said.
“I know when I did my first set, the bar was a little flimsy. It’s not a pull-up bar, it’s not something that is even equipped to hold weight of the magnitude,” Odunbaku said. “But once I completed my first set, and it didn’t break, and my friends did the same thing, I didn’t anything of it but just jumping back on.”
Odunbaku said he turned himself in immediately after he saw the video.
“It’s not a thing where I was running from the accountability, I wanted to be accountable… You can already see my face.” Odunbaku said. “I didn’t intentionally break the pipe, so there was no harm in just stepping up and taking accountability for what happened.
George Mason, in its statement about the video, did not say whether charges were filed. Odunbaku said the school gave them a quote for damages that was roughly $2,000, but was told that number could change. Police told them they had no plans to press charges.
Odunbaku said overall the night was fun and believed the incident was something he and his friends would laugh at. But did apologize again for any inconvenience that the incident caused.
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