A Philadelphia Eagles fan scored an ill-gotten souvenir Sunday when he ripped off a purple plastic seat from U.S. Bank Stadium following Super Bowl LII. His act soon went viral.
He slipped it out of the stadium, sneaked it past security on the busiest day ever at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Monday and on to an American Airlines flight. While he got away, cameras caught him in the act and shared the evidence online.
The man had his new souvenir strapped to his carry-on suitcase when he pulled up a seat next to Marcus Certa in the gate area, and boldly let everybody within earshot know who the new world champions were.
"I kept waiting for somebody to say that he was too intoxicated to get on the plane or that he had a stolen item," said Certa, who was returning to Vermont after attending Sunday's game. "The TSA and the feds are more concerned how much pot you have, not that you have a seat stolen from a stadium."
Certa said he tried not to make eye contact with the man, who can be seen in a video posted by the satirical sports and men's lifestyle blog Barstool Sports. The video shows him walking out of a tent with the seat partly concealed by a coat. The man, wearing clothing with an Eagles logo and what looks like game credentials, is shown shaking the hand of a worker in the coat check area before walking out. Certa said the seat still had the coat check ticket on it when the man got on a plane heading to Charlotte, N.C.
On Instagram, Certa posted a message to U.S. Bank Stadium, saying, "You appear to be missing a seat. The drunk guy next to me has it."
On Tuesday, the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority (MSFA), which operates the two-year-old stadium, said it was aware of the video and that the authority's security team was investigating the incident.
The MSFA has not filed any damage or theft reports with Minneapolis police, and has not asked police to investigate any such cases, said police spokeswoman Darcy Horn.
