Dylan Sprouse is best known for playing Zack Martin on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody with his twin brother, Cole Sprouse, who played Cody Martin. In July 2023, Dylan married Hungarian model Barbara Palvin. Barbara and Dylan live a relatively quiet life out of the spotlight in Hollywood Hills. They had a really scary experience on Friday, however, when Barbara saw a “creepy” man outside of their home just after midnight. She told Dylan about it, and he confronted the man, subdued him, and then held him at gunpoint until the police arrived.
Dylan Sprouse sprang to action early Friday morning when he encountered a trespasser at his Hollywood Hills home.
Sources familiar with the incident told The Times that “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” star tackled a man on the lawn near his home after his wife, Victoria’s Secret model Barbara Palvin, spotted “the creepy guy.” Palvin made an emergency call to police around 12:30 a.m. and reported a possible burglary.
TMZ, citing unnamed sources, reported that Sprouse had a gun and held the trespasser down until police arrived.
Police told The Times that the suspect was taken in on outstanding warrants and that no injuries were reported. Additionally, the suspect did not make it inside the couple’s 1920s Spanish-style home, only onto the property.
TMZ obtained footage of the arrest, which showed a suspect, whose face was blurred out, being handcuffed outside a police vehicle. A skateboard was leaned against the fence of the Disney alum’s property, and a “Private Property, No Trespassing” sign was posted on the gate.
Representatives for Sprouse and Palvin have not responded to The Times’ request for comment.
This story is so crazy that I don’t even know what to say. Someone trespassed on a former child actor’s home, so he straight up tackled them and then pulled out a gun to hold them at the scene?! That is some grown-up Home Alone-meets-Die Hard sh-t right there. Sometimes, the Hollywood plots write themselves.
In all seriousness, I’m so glad that Dylan and Barbara are okay! I can’t even imagine how scary it is to have a home invader. TMZ has video of the perp being arrested. The audio isn’t super clear, but it sounds like he’s asking to be moved to “another area” to avoid the paparazzi. TMZ also reported this incident was considered trespassing (instead of attempted burglary) and that the suspect ended up being arrested due to “outstanding warrants.” Curiously enough, People reports, (citing TMZ) that neither Dylan nor Barbara decided to press charges. Interesting. I wonder if we’ll ever get the full story here. Regardless, it’s pretty bad ass of Dylan to confront the trespasser on his own. Thank goodness it all worked out okay and no one was hurt.
Photos credit: MHD/Avalon, Best Image/Backgrid, Hollywood To You/Backgrid
Something about this situation seems off. What type of outstanding warrants? Maybe I have an evil mind, but I wonder how the police would have handled the suspect if he were black or brown. As it was, he seemed to be handled with kid gloves.
Very weird. If the guy was menacing enough to warrant getting a gun pulled on him why didn’t they press charges?