Better than an autograph: “star-struck” 13-year-old witnesses Rob Ford stumbling and swearing

The cellphone footage, taken by a 13-year-old boy in front of city hall on Saturday night, shows Ford standing in or near Nathan Phillips Square with a string of green St. Patrick’s Day beads around his neck. He can be heard agreeing to take a photo with the teenager (after the boy’s mother calls the mayor “awesome”). Then Ford starts yelling semi-incoherently about needing a taxi (“bro, I need a taxi van to take us home…"), after which he unleashes a string of profanity that CTV, which originally aired the video, chose to bleep out.

This isn’t the first time Ford has been caught seemingly inebriated at city hall on St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Details of his alleged drug-fuelled rampage on St. Patrick’s Day 2012 leaked to the press and provided the foundation for a series of Toronto Star investigations that ultimately led to his crack admission in November 2013. That same month, he vowed to quit drinking, but he was later forced to admit that he was still consuming alcohol when the Steak Queen video surfaced on YouTube in January.

The teenager who took this latest video was “star-struck” by the mayor—at least, according to CTV, who spoke to the boy’s mother. What a privilege, then, to see the master (of being recorded acting drunk in public) at work.