Polish construction supply company CEO Piotr Szczerek is apologizing for snatching tennis star Kamil Majchrzak’s hat away from a young boy at last week’s U.S. Open after he was beset with a major backlash when video of his actions became viral.
Szczerek, who runs a paving stone company in Poland, claims that he thought Majchrzak meant to hand him his cap and says he didn’t realize the tennis star was trying to give his cap to the boy standing beside him in the stands after Majchrzak won the biggest victory of his career on Thursday.
Video of the incident turned Szczerek into a social media pariah as millions of people jumped to their accounts to blast him as a creep for stealing a hat from a little boy.
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Szczerek, though, says it was all just an innocent mistake.
“I would like to unequivocally apologize to the boy who was harmed, his family, as well as all the fans and the player himself,” Szczerek wrote on Instagram, according to the New York Post. “I made a serious mistake.”
“In the emotions, in the crowd’s joy after the victory, I was convinced that the tennis player was handing the cap in my direction — for my sons, who had earlier asked for autographs,” the businessman continued.
“It is a painful but necessary lesson in humility for me,” he said.
Szczerek insists that he did not realize he was taking the hat from a boy and says he seriously thought the tennis star was handing the hat to him.
He also lamented that all the work he and his wife have done in the past for needy children has been undone by one video.
Szczerek closed his message with a pledge, writing, “Therefore, I will engage even more actively in initiatives supporting children and youth, as well as in actions against violence and hate. Believe that only through deeds can I rebuild the lost trust.”
“Once again, I apologize to everyone I have let down,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, U.S. Open player Kamil Majchrzak was able to track down the disappointed boy, and the two met. The tennis star gave the boy an entire bag of goodies.
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