Dad chewed out by “Phillies Karen” has a message for those trying to track her down

The father in the viral “Phillies Karen” story is asking social media sleuths to please chill out and leave the woman alone. After the unidentified Philies fan berated dad Drew Feltwell into handing over the baseball he’d given his son, people went into overdrive trying to hunt her down and get the ball back.

Phillies Karen: a viral ballpark moment turns sour

After clips of this woman screaming her way into a free home run baseball went viral, the internet quickly dubbed her a “Karen” and made her the villain of the week. In the footage, Feltwell came out victorious in the scramble to grab the ball and gave it to his son, who had a birthday coming up.

Just then, a white-haired woman approached and started yelling at the dad until he handed over the ball to de-escalate the situation. The crowd booed her, and she responded with a middle finger. Phillies staff later gifted the boy and his sister goodie bags and a signed bat by the player who hit the home run, Harrison Bader.

Internet sleuths falsely identified one Cheryl Richardson-Wagner as the Phillies Karen for less than a day, forcing her to post about it on Saturday.

“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 on Facebook.

By Monday, Feltwell was talking to USA Today to ask everyone to please stop it.

“Please don’t do anything to that lady,’’ he said. “Leave it alone. You know, somebody knows her and can talk to her, that’s different. But God, I don’t want people breaking in their house and stuff like that. The internet already messed her up pretty good.’’

“I could say something like she got what she deserved, but I don’t know if she deserved that much.”

“She brought this on herself”

Indeed, social media is notorious for going overboard when it comes to turning someone’s bad day into a life-ruining moment. Richardson-Wagner isn’t the first person to be unjustly targeted, either. In 2020, New York Magazine published a list of people falsely identified as criminals, like the Boston Marathon bomber.

Folks have also been fired from their jobs after going viral online. The Coldplay couple is probably still the primary recent example that comes to mind.

On X, dragging the Phillies Karen is still trending into this week. Comedic “barnstorming” baseball team, the Savanna Bananas, even did a mock skit of the incident at one of their games.

While some understood and agreed with Faltwell’s plea to leave the Phillies Karen alone, most appear unwilling to give up their hate target just yet.

“NO WAY!! NO MERCY!” said @AldoZupp. “She brought this on herself! Actions have consequences!”

“Apologize for acting like a psychopath AND give the ball back. Then it stops.”

Others, like @Lakia_Holmes, relied on memes and gifs to say “no.”