A Polish CEO who grabbed a hat from a boy at the U.S. Open last week apologized Monday for his actions.
Piotr Szczerek, who runs a paving company, said sorry for his “extremely poor judgment and hurtful actions” in a Facebook post addressing the incident.
“It was never my intent to steal away a prized memento from the young fan,” Szczerek wrote. “Regardless of what I believed was happening, the actions I took hurt the young boy and disappointed the fans.”
Szczerek was standing next to a young fan named Brock after Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak defeated Karen Khachanov in the second round on Aug. 28. Majchrzak passed his hat to the stands, and Szczerek reached for it at the same time as Brock before yanking it out of the boy’s hands and stuffing it in a bag.
Afterward, comments attributed to Szczerek went viral, alleging he said, “If you were faster, you would have it” and threatening legal action.
In Monday’s statement, Szczerek denied issuing any prior statement.
“I also want to state clearly: neither I nor my wife nor my sons commented on this situation on social media or on any other platform,” he wrote. “All statements appearing online accredited to us were false and were not authored by us or our representatives.”
Majchrzak later met with Brock, presented him with a new hat and shared the moment on Instagram. After his five-set upset over Khachanov, Majchrzak retired early in his third round match against Leandro Riedi of Switzerland.
With News Wire Services
