Also this issue:

Laminate Lament
How the theft of some plastic in the Northeast can make your life miserable.
-Daryl Gale

Tavis Smiley
-Deborah Bolling

Absolutely Fabulous
-Mary F. Patel

Experimental Justice
-Daniel Brook

The Bell Curve
City Paper's weekly gauge of Philly's Quality of Life

November 21-27, 2002

city beat

Unnecessary Roughness

The boys of section 346 get spanked.

by Daryl Gale

A few weeks ago we brought you the lighthearted tale of a trio of mischievous scamps with the rather unusual hobby of sneaking into Veterans Stadium every Sunday to take in the Eagles game without going through the expensive and time-consuming bother of buying tickets ("Fan-tastic Discount," Oct. 24). The ringleader of the bunch, Martin Brennan of Northeast Philadelphia, along with his buddies Steve and Craig, said they’d been doing it for years and intended to keep right on climbing the fence at the Vet until someone stopped them.

That took exactly one week.

Apparently stadium security didn't think the story was so innocuous or lighthearted. At the Eagles Monday night game against the New York Giants on Oct. 28, Brennan says he was spit on, slapped around and dragged away by stadium security, who turned him over to Eagles' court for swift punishment.

"The security guy said he recognized me from City Paper, and wanted to make an example of me," says Brennan, contacted at home this week. "The guards walked me down to the police station in the Vet basement, then put me in a van and hauled me to the police station [at 11th and Wharton streets]."

At press time, efforts to reach Event One, which handles security for the Vet, were unsuccessful.

Attempts to contact Steve and Craig for comment also failed, but Brennan says they were treated similarly.

Brennan was taken that night before Philadelphia Municipal Court President Judge Louis Presenza and pleaded guilty to defiant trespass, for which Presenza slapped him with a $300 fine and $132 in court costs. He has three months to pay up or appeal the fine, and says he'll probably just cough up the dough.

"If I try to appeal, who knows how much it'll be if I lose," Brennan says sadly. "They'll probably make it worse for me just for causing a stink."

After his court appearance, Brennan was let go and promptly went back to Veterans Stadium to catch the fourth quarter. He won't say if he sneaked in the second time, and says that the crew no longer hangs out at section 346. So is the party over?

"I'm not telling you that," he says coyly. "That's how I got into this crap in the first place. Whether I sneak in or not, I'm keeping my big mouth shut." (dsgale@citypaper.net)