Remember those kids who used to clean out the "please take one" candy dishes of the neighbors who couldn't be home for trick-or-treating on Halloween?
Yeah, they apparently all grew up, moved to Wisconsin and became fans of the Milwaukee Brewers.
In what is simply a silly but greedy story, several fans reportedly ruined the Brewers' big "Where's Bernie?" promotion on Tuesday morning by showing up early at the city's lakefront to find the 1,000 "lawn jockey" statues of team mascot Bernie Brewer that had been hidden in different locations. Once there, the gluttons did further pre-dawn damage to Wisconsin's friendly reputation by scooping up multiple statues before the promotion had even started.
Sounds like the type of people who wouldn't share from their bag of cheese curds ...
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:�
Under the rules, fans were told to arrive at 7 a.m. and take one of the ornaments [...]�But in what Brewers spokesman Tyler Barnes said were isolated cases, some people grabbed more than one.
One woman reported on her Twitter account that she had taken as many as three dozen, though that could not be confirmed. The ornaments began appearing for sale on eBay, with one seller asking $122.50 for one ornament.
Barnes describes the cases as "isolated," though a scan of the #wheresbernie Twitter hashtag is full of angry anecdotes describing the rule-breaking run on the weird brand of Kenoshan kitsch. Brewers-based blogs like Brew Crew Ball and Miller Park Drunk sampled a couple of the worst, including souvenir seekers grabbing the statues straight from golf carts before they were hidden, to people sleeping over night in their parked cars for a chance. The two photos in this piece were posted to a Twitter account that was taken down after people aimed huge amounts of vitriol at the boasting Bernie hoarder.
So what was the motivation for taking so many? It should probably come as no surprise to note that the statues have already started popping up on eBay with buy-it-now prices north of $100. One autographed by manager Ron Roenicke�is listed at $349.99, while�another statue has been bid up to $255 at the time of this posting. That's a lot of cheese if you drove home from Milwaukee with a conversion van full of Bernies.
The joke, however, may be on the hoarders themselves because those left empty-handed can simply now buy the statues at the Brewers gift shop for a much lower price of $48. That not only cuts into their potentially huge payday, but it would also suggest that the $255 bid mentioned above is bogus and designed to keep the seller ? legit or not ? from making any money.
Also, while the behavior of Brewers fans probably comes as no surprise to anyone that has 1) been a member of the human race for longer than five minutes or 2) ever attended a bobblehead promotion at any sporting event, there's at least a nice silver lining in all of this mess.
Yup, it looks like at least one statue found the right person Tuesday morning (h/t: @JoeSteve).
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