This photo, posted to Twitter by @JustinBiebeNew1, apparently shows Justin Bieber at a nightclub in downtown Toronto. Bieber reportedly lost a gold chain in a tussle with another patron.Photo by Twitter user @JustinBiebeNew1
Justin Bieber's Labour Day weekend festivities were spiked with drama early Saturday morning in Toronto, when a fellow nightclub patron reportedly rushed the Canadian pop star and, in the ensuing melee, allegedly caused him to lose a $40,000 gold chain.
Mr. Bieber – no stranger to controversy this summer, after a video emerged of him apparently urinating in a restaurant's mop bucket, and marijuana was found on a bus associated with his tour – was in Toronto this weekend and visited at least two downtown venues, Everleigh and Uniun Nightclub.
Police at 14 Division, which is responsible for the city's King Street West area that includes Uniun, said they had no record of the reported tussle and they are not investigating a lost chain. "What we know is what we read online," Constable Christopher Schwartz said Sunday of news reports and social-media sites referring to a necklace lost in the scrap. "There's no report."
A woman who answered the phone at Uniun confirmed the London, Ont.-born singer was at the venue this weekend but directed questions to Charles Khabouth at Ink Entertainment, which owns Uniun and other clubs such as Guvernment and Koolhaus. Mr. Khabouth did not respond to an interview request as of Sunday afternoon.
Around 3 a.m. Saturday at Uniun, a club-goer "tried in vain to tackle" Mr. Bieber after he left the the VIP area for the dance floor, charging him and grabbing his shirt as the singer tried to defend himself with a "fury of kicks," TMZ.com reported. The gossip site published pictures it claims captured the altercation, showing Mr. Bieber being held back as a man in a black t-shirt hovers over someone on the ground.
Mr. Bieber, sporting a backward hat and partially bare chest with an opened shirt, is wearing a gold chain in the photograph. The "attacker" was escorted from the club, the site reported.
Earlier in the day Friday, Mr. Bieber teased his nearly 40 million Twitter followers with the elusive message, "Where am I?" and then hours later, around 8 p.m., tweeted a picture of himself on the steps of Stratford's Avon Theatre, where he had busked before achieving fame. "Remember where you come from," he wrote.
Later that night, Mr. Bieber – who made headlines in May after his pet monkey was seized by German customs officials, and who announced earlier this summer he would be on hiatus from touring until late September – was seen at Everleigh nightclub, near Uniun.
Everleigh owner Zark Fatah said he received a call from one of Mr. Bieber's managers Friday afternoon letting him know "we have Bieber out tonight" and that the star planned to visit Everleigh. "[Mr. Bieber] went right to the DJ booth, grabbed the microphone and started talking to the crowd, telling them to have a good time, turn their cameras off, relax," Mr. Fatah said, adding that his understanding is that Mr. Bieber was in town visiting his family.
Mr. Fatah said Mr. Bieber left sometime around 12:30 a.m. Saturday because he found the crowd "a little too mature" and wanted to go somewhere with a younger demographic. Mr. Fatah said the club snapped a picture of Mr. Bieber sporting a hat and "a big gold chain" before he left.
Femme Fatale Promotions & Media tweeted a picture of Mr. Bieber on Saturday morning saying, "Our models had a blast hosting with Justin Bieber last night at Everleigh!" Founder Emily Lyons said in an e-mail some models "went to party with him after he left Uniun," though she didn't say where.
Efforts to reach Mr. Bieber's Universal Music representatives were unsuccessful. It remains unclear whether a chain was stolen or lost in the kerfuffle, or whether it has been retrieved.