Once again we have a story about an adult at a sporting event snatching a souvenir out of the hands of a child who had been given it by an athlete. In this case, the villain becomes even more villainous when it turns out that he is a millionaire.

Moments after the tennis player Kamil Majchrzak celebrated the biggest win of his career at the US Open last week, he handed his cap to a beaming young boy. What happened next sparked tears, outrage, a detective hunt across social media and, finally, a grovelling apology.

It came from Piotr Szczerek, a millionaire businessman from Poland, who had snatched the cap out of the boy’s hand and stuffed it into his bag. Videos of the incident showed the youngster looking deeply upset and asking: “What are you doing?” while Majchrzak – who was oblivious to the situation after his five-set victory against the ninth seed, Karen Khachanov – walked away.

You can see the incident here.

A Polish millionaire CEO and businessman was exposed after grabbing a tennis star’s hat that was being given to a child
pic.twitter.com/3fVEBetmlK

— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) August 30, 2025

While he later apologized, Szczerek’s initial response made him seem even more of a cartoon villain.

If the internet has any one true beau, it is that of the dastardly villain. Szczerek, owner of asphalt company Drogbruk and amateur tennis buff, was outed overnight. Net detectives proclaimed him to be the “most hated man on the internet.” Frankly, the optics were brutal.

A tycoon boss who has a private tennis court in his own yard, stealing a souvenir from a schoolboy? That’s not just a poor image, that’s Bond villain style.

So when the cameras recorded him-stuffing-the-hat-into-his-wife’s-purse like it was contraband, game over. There was no coming back from Szczerek. His social networking sites disappeared in the scandal.

However, rather than slowly disappearing, Szczerek doubled up, as Dexerto reports. Issuing a public statement that sounded like lines from a parody program, he ignored the backlash:

“Ah, yes, I took it. Yes, I did it in a rush. But as always, first come, first served is life.”

Brother, that ain’t no shoe drop; that was that boy’s hat.

He even threatened to sue those who disrespect him on the web. Just thinking about swiping a hat from a kid, then breaking out the “see you in court” magic trick.
…

Just when the tale seemed ridiculous enough, a bizarre statement appeared on the internet under the name of Szczerek’s attorney. He characterized the hat grab as anything short of robbery, but instead an “educational gesture” to teach the boy a sense of gratitude and responsibility.

Yes, you got that right. The defence was that in essence, He did not steal from him; He gave him a life lesson.

It was removed soon thereafter, the honest lawyer complaining that he had been misrepresented. But by that time, damage was already done. The net had meme fodder for months.

Szczerek could take a lesson from a young boy at a baseball game who got a ball in the stands but then, on seeing a little girl crying because she did not get it, spontaneously went over to her and gave it.

There is something really odd about grown people scrambling and even fighting over things that have no intrinsic value but happen to be associated with a sports event. There is something about getting something free (like T-shirts shot out of a cannon) that makes adults who could well afford to buy them, be willing to fight others for them.

Of course, some sports memorabilia can be sold for large sums of money, which may explain some of this behavior. But even that seems strange to me. If I went to someone’s home and they showed me something that was associated with some major sports event, I might be mildly interested. But if the owner bragged about how he had paid a lot for it, I would be secretly thinking, “What an idiot!”.

One can place a value on these kinds of items by either what people are willing to pay for it, which is the financial basis for the entire collectible industry, or by their utility, which in most cases is zero. The former valuation seems to me to be built on sand, that could disappear overnight.