Matt O'Hara is the new proud owner a car donated by a local auto dealer.
Matt O'Hara doesn't even go to the University of Kentucky, but that didn't stop his car from being totaled at the hands of rabid fans celebrating the school's first win against Florida in 31 years.
Drunken students rioted following the football victory, jumping on O'Hara's 2004 white Volvo, rolling it over and smashing its windows. Video shows one reveler jumping from the roof of a house onto the four-door sedan.
"It literally looked like they were going insane," O'Hara told InsideEdition.com Thursday. The 19-year-old's limited insurance wouldn't cover the damage "because it was a riot," he said. His mother, days before, had canceled full coverage of the vehicle because of its age.
Enter the Big M Superstore in Nicholasville, a local auto dealer that wanted to apologize to O'Hara "on behalf of the Big Blue Nation," according to its owner.
Stephen Montgomery told his sales manager they needed to do something to help O'Hara after watching online video of his car being destroyed. They were able to get hold of O'Hara's mom, Amy Rademaker Given, and asked the mother and son to come visit their lot.
"We didn't know what was going on," O'Hara said.
They showed up, and what happened next left him gobsmacked, he said.
A Mazda, in Kentucky blue, was all his.
"I was speechless," he said.
O'Hara's mouth hung open as he struggled to take it all in. "I just sat there like, 'You're going to give us a car?'''
O'Hara had driven down to Lexington to visit a friend and watch the big game. He parked a few streets from his buddy's house. He found out his car was wrecked when another friend texted him in the middle of the night to say video of what looked like O'Hara's Volvo was all over social media.
"Dang," O'Hara said when he saw the footage. "That's my car." When he went to the police impound lot the next day, his car was a total loss. "They really did damage," the teen said.
Given had started a GoFundMe page to buy her son a replacement vehicle. She is now in the process of returning the donations.
O'Hara, who is starting at Northern Kentucky University in the fall, says what was done to his car was "pretty messed up." But he doesn't "have any bad blood" against the out-of-control celebrants.
Students have erupted in the past over big Kentucky wins. A common outburst is torching sofas in front of fraternity houses.
"They should stick to burning couches," O'Hara said.
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