Penguins fan booed out of PPG Paints Arena for swiping puck from young fan
By Jessica Guay
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A Pittsburgh Penguins fan caught the fury of his fellow fans Sunday night after he swiped a puck from a kid who wanted it.
Now the fan is going viral for causing quite an uproar.
There was a sudden commotion in the stands at PPG Paints Arena while the Penguins were tied 1-1 against Tampa in the second period.
“It turns out that a puck went up into the netting and a young boy about 3 or 4 rows back went and shook the glass. And as it fell to the ground, an older gentleman reached down and grabbed the puck,” said Kevin Acklin, Pittsburgh Penguins President of Business Operations.
Pens faithful were not happy with the older man, and many took out their phones to start recording.
“They started booing this older gentleman fan who by his own right gave the puck to his granddaughter who was about a teenage granddaughter,” Acklin said.
Acklin said a girlfriend or wife of one of the Penguins players walked over to the young fan and gave him another puck.
“It was a great moment, they hugged. And as the wife or girlfriend was leaving, the grandfather got up and started getting into it with the fans around them,” he said.
In the viral video, the older fan can be seen yelling at another fan, and then he walks up to the boy’s mom and starts arguing with her.
Pens fans booed the man until he was ejected from the game.
“At that point, it sort of got out of hand and there were some hand gestures, and the older gentleman was escorted out of the building….It’s unfortunate, a lot of passion. I think the worst thing about it was during that whole iteration, Tampa scored on us, right in front of it and it was a little bit of an uproar,” Acklin said.
The Penguins didn’t get the win, but ultimately both families walked away with a puck.
“I just want to caution everybody that there’s always two sides to the story, and I credit our staff, we reached out to both families who both felt that they were in the right,” Acklin said.
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