How has an Eagles fan won a free ticket giveaway 13 times in three years?
It happens on Fridays, you see. The local ball team -- they go by the Eagles around there -- do a #FanFriday promotion where they send their mascot, a big bird that goes by Swoop, somewhere out into Greater Philadelphia. The first fan to find Swoop and slap hands (claws?) gets two free tickets to that weekend's game.
Little bit of harmless fun, right? But there's a twist here. (There's always a twist.) They've done the promotion 20 times since the start of the 2014 season ... and one person appears to have won the contest 13 times.
What on earth is going on here?
https://twitter.com/Eagles/status/811257785031725056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Eagles/status/652603007973109765?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Eagles/status/679349430039027713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Thirteen times out of 20, @YungYle has won the contest. I think we can all agree: This stinks to high heavens. My shenanigans sense is a-tingling. Something, dear readers, is afoot.
How could he have done it? Was there an inside man? Several other internet detectives got on the case, and produced what appeared to be the smoking gun:
https://twitter.com/YungYle/status/788869018329505792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The plug. The double agent. We'd found our mole.
The only thing left to do was confront the perp. BillyPenn went and found him, and the kid swears it's all clean. He won't budge on it.
Some nerve on this guy.
“There’s no cheating,” he said. “It’s just determination. That’s all.”
When pressed, @YungYle, AKA Kyle Lloyd, admitted he did have one edge -- a cool boss who lets him cut out for lunch a little early sometimes.
“I don’t have any connections with the Eagles or I wouldn’t be out there on my lunch break not getting lunch,” Lloyd told BillyPenn. “I clock out for lunch early to get there. I have a boss who’s cool enough to let me take a lunch break at 11 o’clock to go see Swoop and give him a high five.”
That smoking gun tweet? Just a coincidence, he says. He had a friend who helped him get tickets for a special occasion once, but had nothing to do with this.
Is he telling the truth? That's on you to decide, fellow detectives. That's on you to decide.
(He's probably telling the truth.)
