A New Jersey school district has been forced to deny that one of their employees is the ‘Phillies Karen’ who berated a father and son at a baseball game last week as the search to uncover her true identity continues online.
The incident has become an internet sensation after Lincoln Feltwell’s father, Drew, managed to snag a home run ball ahead of his son’s 10th birthday during Friday’s Phillies-Marlins game.
Drew was bullied by a woman into handing it over to her as she angrily told him the ball belonged to her.
The ‘Phillies Karen’ has still managed to remain unidentified, despite thousands on social media desperately hunting to find out who she is.
On Saturday, a woman was forced to deny she was the culprit after a case of mistaken identity led to her Facebook being overrun with angry messages.
Now another woman has been wrongly accused with a school district in New Jersey forced to release a statement insisting one of their employees is not ‘Phillies Karen’.
A New Jersey school district has denied that one of their employees is the ‘Phillies Karen’
The Hammonton Public Schools even joked someone associated with them ‘would obviously have caught the ball bare-handed in the first place, avoiding this entire situation.’
A post on Facebook alleged she was a ‘school administrator’ from New Jersey and had been fired from her job. But in reality the Hammonton Public Schools denied one of their employees was ever involved.
They posted on Facebook: ‘The woman identified on social media as “Phillies Karen” is not, and has never been an employee of the Hammonton Public Schools located in Hammonton, New Jersey.
‘Social media and news reports indicating that she is, are incorrect.
‘Anyone who works for our school district, attended as a student or lives in our community would obviously have caught the ball bare-handed in the first place, avoiding this entire situation.’
It comes two days after speculation across X saw users claim the woman’s name was ‘Cheryl Richardson-Wagner’ and inevitably, it sent people on the hunt for her Facebook page.
But the rumors were mistaken. A woman called Cheryl Richardson-Wagner herself was forced to put a statement up on her page insisting she was not the person that sparked the scenes.
‘Ok everyone… I’m NOT the crazy Philly Mom (but I sure would love to be as thin as she is and move as fast)… and I’m a Red Sox fan,’ she wrote.
To underline her final point, she changed her Facebook cover photo to the Boston Red Sox crest. She also commented underneath one of her posts, telling her friends peeople had been sending her angry messages.
The stunned boy looked on as his father was confronted by the woman and fellow Phillies fan
‘I imagine I’ll be receiving apologies from all the people who have been harrassing me all day,’ she wrote to one friend, and added in another comment: ‘I wasn’t anywhere near Florida last night, never mind a Phillies game in Florida.’
The viral incident occurred Friday night in a game between Philadelphia and the Miami Marlins in Florida, when Phillies outfielder Harrison Bader smacked a home run to left field at loanDepot Park.
The ball landed near some Philly fans, in front of a woman who was just a little slow to react.
The woman, the man standing next to her, and two other fans tracking the ball all dove to try and get it. In the end, a man wearing a red Phillies shirt was able to reach down and grab it cleanly.
As he walked off, the woman took a swipe at him and missed as the man got back to his seats and then gave the ball to his son, who looked thrilled.
But the woman just couldn’t stand coming up short, hopped down to the man’s row, and confronted him. Shocked, the man turned to her in a defensive stance with his hands at his face.
Eventually, as she kept yelling, the dad took the ball away from his son and gave it to the woman.
The family gave their version of events about the story on Sunday night. ‘I wasn’t very happy that we had to give it to her, but we can’t win,’ Lincoln sadly told NBC 10 Philadelphia. ‘She was going to get it anyways.’
A woman called Cheryl Richardson-Wagner has had to deny she was the person in the video
‘I’m happy I got to get something else. It was very, very fun getting to meet Bader,’ he added.
As for what was going through his head during the confrontation, Drew explained: ‘Just trying to set an example of how to de-escalate a situation in front of my son, I guess,’ he told the network.
Feltwell, who attended the game with his wife, son and daughter, added that he was ‘still in disbelief’ at the woman’s actions and that he apologized to his son for handing the ball over.
‘I thought I had accomplished this great thing,’ Feltwell said. ‘But she just wouldn’t stop.’
