CRASH - CRASH STAR HOWARD RAN AWAY FROM ARMED ROBBERY CHARGE

CRASH star TERRENCE HOWARD gave up his acting dreams in Hollywood and moved to Pennsylvania after he was wrongly charged with brandishing a weapon while `stealing' his brother's car from a towing company.

The actor became a family hero when he scared the towing company's bosses into letting him drive his brother's car away without paying the tow charge, but the firm got its own back by having Howard arrested.

The bosses claimed he had waved one of the swords he collected at the time at them, but Howard still maintains he left his blade collection in his own car and never used a weapon to get his sibling's car back.

He says, "Two months later I'm at the bank, I come out of the bank and the moment I get to my car, there's 12 police cars surrounding me - `Put your hands on top of your head...' I thought I'd got a ticket or something.

"It turns out the people at the tow yard said I walked in there and they thought I had brandished a weapon - that's the only reason they let me out...

"They said that this car was used in an armed robbery... at a tow yard and then it hits me, so I leave town after I get out of jail and I went to Philadelphia and started laying carpet for $7 an hour.

"After I got me some money I went to court and straightened it all out and now it's all good... I don't carry swords anymore. I got rid of all my knives."