Father Who Was Berated By ‘Phillies Karen’ In Viral Video Breaks Silence: ‘She Yelled…’

Drew Feltwell said the woman jumped in front of him, reached for his arm and started going off, stating that it was her ball.

Father Who Was Berated By 'Phillies Karen' In Viral Video Breaks Silence: 'She Yelled...'

Drew Feltwell said he just wanted the woman to leave as he gave away the ball.

The father who was berated by a woman at a baseball game in the USA has explained why he handed over the home run ball to her, which was supposed to be a birthday gift for his son. The man, identified as Drew Feltwell, said the woman started yelling at him and that he just wanted the ‘Phillies Karen’ to go away.

“I pretty much just wanted her to go away,” Mr Feltwell was quoted as saying by NBC10 Philadelphia, adding that he was the first and only person to grab the ball.

“She was in the seat behind, I don’t know if she was standing up. Maybe? But I was watching the ball from almost the bat to where it went into that seat and kind of jumbled around and I was already going in and coincidentally, as soon as I was going in, it stopped in one spot and I just picked it up.”

As per Mr Feltwell, the woman jumped in front of him, reached for his arm and started going off, stating that it was her ball.

“I jumped out of my skin and I was like, you know, like ‘Why are you here?’ you know, ‘Go away.’ And she’s like, ‘That’s my ball! You stole out of – those are from our seats.’ And I said, ‘There was nobody in that seat,’ you know. She said, ‘That’s from where we were sitting,’ and she just went on and on.”

With a lot of eyes and cameras on him, Mr Feltwell said he had two options: whether to do something and regret the situation or be a dad and show his son, Lincoln, “how to de-escalate the situation”.

“We were there to get a home run ball. I thought I had accomplished this great thing and putting [it] in his glove meant a lot and she was just so adamant and loud and yelling and persistent and I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore.”

What happened?

During a Major League Baseball (MLB) game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Miami Marlins on Friday (Sept 5), Harrison Bader hit a solo home run as the ball landed in the stands of the LoanDepot Park. Mr Feltwell quickly ran across to collect the ball and gave it to Lincoln.

However, moments later, the woman charged at him, grabbed his shoulders and demanded the ball back, seemingly under the belief she was entitled to it since it was closer to her seat. The incident was caught on camera and quickly went viral as social media users called her out for being a nuisance at the ballpark.

A Marlins representative later came to the section, apologised to the boy, and gave him a “goodie bag” with various gifts.

“That was not OK,” the Marlins rep said to Lincoln. “So we brought you a cool little goodie bag. I’m so sorry.”

The boy also got to meet Bader after the game and received a signed bat from the player to make up for the incident.