Rhianna Benson
A blindsiding plot twist has come to light in the viral case of the 'stolen' Phillies ball, after new footage of the incident was released.
For anyone who missed the headline-hitting controversy, it all kicked off prior to the Philadelphia Phillies' 9-3 victory against the Miami Marlins over the weekend (7 Sept).
During the game, centre-fielder Harrison Bader scored a glorious home run, sending the ball flying high into the stands.
As it falls, the ball appears to be heading directly towards an unoccupied area of the stadium, spurring one doting dad - later identified as Drew Feltwell - to dart across the bleachers in an attempt to bag it for his young son, Lincoln.
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Seconds after securing the ball and embracing his child, however, the father is interrupted by a grown female Phillies fan, who claimed the it was heading straight to her, and that he'd wrongly intercepted it.
Blindsided by the yelling just inches away from his face, the dad then handed the ball to the woman, who storms back to her seat whilst being booed by onlookers.
The backlash for her behaviour went on to reach such an extent that she and her partner left the stadium.
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As we say, however, a new angle of the heated interaction has since been shared online, during which the ball seems to disappear out of view for a while from Lincoln's glove.
Around the same time, the boy's sister seems to lean out of view, leading some fans to question whether the home run ball given back to the disgruntled woman had actually been swapped for another.
In the comments of a TikTok taken from original Snapchat footage, one viewer asked: "Did i see it correctly? The older sister change the ball?"
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Another claimed: "The sister switched the ball theory is real."
"The sister pushed him back but I wonder if she switched the ball too?" a third questioned.
"It looks like the sister switches the ball," wrote another.
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"The girl swapped the ball," a fifth noted.
Other internet users were preoccupied, however, by the idea that Drew was actually in the wrong, having sprinted across to the woman's seating area to grab the ball.
"It kind of looks like he did grab it from her," another suggested.
Someone else hit back, however: "No it fell on the floor she didn't catch it so it was fair game tbh."
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"In the video it actually looks like he snatches it away if you watch it really carefully," a third chimed in.
Another argued back, however: "She's a row back and leaning down to grab it, she never had possession."
And that's exactly what Drew himself believes.
Speaking to NBC following the incident, the father-of-two claims he had no idea the woman had even followed him back to his seat until she began yelling at his family.
"She was in the seat behind. I don’t know if she was standing up. Maybe?" he suggested.
"But I was watching the ball from almost the bat to where it went into that seat and kind of jumbled around and I was already going in and coincidentally, as soon as I was going in, it stopped in one spot and I just picked it up."
He went on to claim: "I didn’t even see her walk up and as she reached for my arm. She just yelled in my ear, 'That’s my ball!', like super loud.
"I jumped out of my skin and I was like, you know, like 'Why are you here?' you know, 'Go away.'
"And she’s like, 'That’s my ball! You stole out of – those are from our seats.' And I said, 'There was nobody in that seat', you know."
The dad added: "She said, 'That’s from where we were sitting,' and she just went on and on."
Asked why he didn't refuse to give the ball back, Drew continued: "I don’t even remember what she said, it was, you know, a lot of eyes on us by that time and the ball was already in his glove and she just wouldn’t stop.
"And I mean, I’m literally leaning back as she’s in my face yelling and yelling and I pretty much just wanted her to go away because I had a fork in the road.
"Either do something I was probably going to regret or be dad and show him how to de-escalate the situation, so that’s where I went."