Several years ago, Lenny B. Robinson became a bit of an internet sensation when the owner of the black Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder was pulled over by Maryland police wearing full Batman costume. That the man was a regular visitor to children’s hospitals was an integral part to his story. Regrettably, the Washington Post is reporting that this cape wearing do-gooder was killed this past weekend on the side of a Maryland highway when his latest Batmobile broke down.
Robinson, a 51-year old Baltimore native who’d built his success on a cleaning business thus enabling him to indulge in the purchase of a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, turned his own passionate indulgence in a sportscar into a way to charitably do good. Dressing as batman, he’d visit sick children in hospitals around the Baltimore and DC area where he’d hand out batman toys, books and rubber bracelets.
Over the years, he took the Batman role even more seriously by trading his black Gallardo Spyder for a replica of the 1960s Batmobile based on the chassis of a similar era Lincoln Continental. He’d told friends the car cost more than $250,000, and likely gathered more attention for his caped crusading ways than did the Gallardo. Though Lamborghini has been featured multiple times as Bruce Wayne’s ride of choice in the movies, Batman has always had a Batmobile.
The Washington Post reports that Robinson had been attending a car show with his Lincoln-based Batmobile in West Virginia over the weekend. He’d just met a family with kids at a local gas station where he’d stopped, sharing batman paraphernalia with the kids, before continuing his trip eastbound on Maryland’s I-70 near the city of Hagerstown.
Shortly after returning to the highway and at about 10:30 PM, Robinson is believed to have been experiencing engine trouble and came to a stop “partially in the fast lane” as witnessed by the family who had been following him and also pulled over with him, witnessing the event. Robinson was checking the engine when the Batmobile replica was hit by a Toyota Camry, hitting the car into Robinson who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Of course any such incident would be a tragedy, but the loss of a car enthusiast who built so much of his identity out of making kids happy is simply hard to accept. Our thoughts are with his family. Robinson will be missed by countless children and the many car enthusiasts who admired what he embodied.
The post Caped Do-Gooder ‘Lamborghini Batman’ Killed When Batmobile Struck on Side of Maryland Highway appeared first on VWVortex.
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