{"id":125411,"date":"2025-09-01T18:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T18:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/125411\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T18:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T18:16:10","slug":"us-open-hat-snatch-polish-ceo-piotr-szczerek-finally-apologizes-calls-it-a-serious-mistake-heres-why-its-not-working-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/125411\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open hat snatch: Polish CEO Piotr Szczerek finally apologizes, calls it a \u2018serious mistake\u2019 \u2014 here\u2019s why it\u2019s not working | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"US The man at the center of one of the most bizarre US Open controversies has finally broken his silence. Piotr Szczerek, the Polish CEO filmed snatching a signed cap from a child, admitted he made a \u201cserious mistake\u201d after the viral clip turned him into the internet\u2019s latest villain.\u201cI would like to unequivocally apologize to the boy who was harmed, his family, as well as all the fans and the player himself,\u201d Szczerek wrote on Instagram. \u201cIt is a painful but necessary lesson in humility for me.\u201d\u201cIn the emotions, in the crowd\u2019s joy after the victory, I was convinced that the tennis player was handing the cap in my direction \u2014 for my sons, who had earlier asked for autographs,\u201d he added.\u201cIt is a painful but necessary lesson in humility for me.\u201dBut while his apology struck a somber tone, the internet hasn\u2019t been quick to forgive – or forget.The grab that shocked fansThe drama began after Polish tennis star Kamil Majchrzak\u2019s victory at the 2025 US Open. As he leaned down to hand a signed cap to a young fan named Brok, Szczerek swooped in, snatched it mid-air, and stashed it in his wife\u2019s handbag. Cameras caught every second, and within hours the clip went viral worldwide.What should have been a heartwarming post-match moment instantly became a PR disaster.Internet detectives strikeIt didn\u2019t take long for social media sleuths to identify the mystery man as the CEO of Drogbruk, a paving stone and landscaping company in Poland. Review sites lit up with angry one-star comments, memes spread like wildfire, and captions mocked him as everything from \u201cCEO of stealing dreams\u201d to \u201cThe paving stone Grinch.\u201dOne furious user wrote, \u201cNothing is more disgusting than a child bully\u2026 stealing the cap of Kamil Majchrzak during the US Open. Disgusting people.\u201dHero move from the playerSensing the backlash, Majchrzak stepped in to save the day. He personally met Brok, gave him another signed cap, and even added extra memorabilia. The internet applauded the gesture, praising the tennis player for restoring what Szczerek had taken away.The apology that almost worked-until it didn\u2019tSzczerek\u2019s Instagram apology seemed like the start of damage control. But then came screenshots from a Polish online forum, where he had reportedly defended himself with a very different tone earlier saying, \u201cYes, I took it. Life is first-come, first-served. It\u2019s just a hat. If you were faster, you would have it.\u201dThat contradictory statement reignited the anger, with critics calling his apology hollow.Fallout continuesSince then, Szczerek has deactivated his social media, but the internet hasn\u2019t let go. Memes now show him grabbing everything from Wimbledon trophies to Super Bowl rings. His company, meanwhile, remains under scrutiny as the saga drags on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man at the center of one of the most bizarre US Open controversies has finally broken his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[13832,78599,78598,80133,80134,99,428,80135,80132],"class_list":{"0":"post-125411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-apology","9":"tag-kamil-majchrzak","10":"tag-piotr-szczerek","11":"tag-signed-cap","12":"tag-social-media-backlash","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-us-open-controversy","16":"tag-viral-clip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}