14 DAY TRIAL // Rihanna was feeling a wee bit remorseful when she broke Police Commission President Steve Sobroff's phone during a basketball game, so she decided to do the right thing and pay up in cash, but not just the price of the broken phone, and not to the police commissioner.
The singer is reported to have donated $25,000 (€18,231) to the LAPD as a way of saying sorry for breaking Sobroff's phone. The police commission president made the announcement himself at an official police meeting on Tuesday, May 13.
He also recalled the unfortunate incident that resulted in the demise of his phone. It turns out that on May 9, Rihanna happened to be sitting next to Sobroff at the Los Angeles Clippers game against Oklahoma City. He thought this was a good time to ask for a photo of the two of them together, and the singer happily obliged.
Sobroff asked that Rihanna put on a LAPD wristband to show her support for the officers, and she again agreed, like a good sport. However, when it came time to take the photo, she accidentally dropped the phone, breaking its screen and rendering it useless.
The singer later wrote on Twitter, “Sorry I broke your phone @SteveSoboroff,” but the police official saw an opportunity in the little mishap and later met with Rihanna again and asked her to sign it because he wanted to auction it off for charity.
This came as a polite way of getting out of an embarrassing situation, so Rihanna agreed and wrote “Sorry! I [love] LAPD. Rihanna” with a Sharpie on the back of the phone. Sobroff's phone now stands to make $56,500 (€41,203) at the auction. The proceeds are going to go to the LAPD's cadet program and to the Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation to support the families of fallen officers.
In addition to the auction money, Rihanna forked an additional $25,000 (€18,231) of her own money to the charity as a final “I'm sorry,” and Sobroff happily accepted this generous offer. It just goes to show that money always makes a nice apology, especially in large amounts, and it helps if it's for charity.
A lesson can be learned from all of this: the next time when you run into Rihanna and want to take a selfie with her, make sure that you're the one holding the phone, because it's highly unlikely that you'll be getting the same amount of money as compensation that Sobroff got, well, at least not unless you've got a charity of your own.