Posted on 01/08/2007 7:10:02 PM PST by MotleyGirl70
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A confrontation between a costumed Tigger and a child at Walt Disney World that led to a sheriff's investigation and the suspension of the character is grabbing national headlines and was featured on CBS's 'The Early Show' Monday.
The incident happened over the weekend when Jerry Monaco, of New Hampshire, and his family visited Disney-MGM Studios. During a photo with a "Tigger" character, the man in the costume, Michael J. Fedelem, was videotaped apparently throwing a punch at Monaco's son, Jerry Jr., Local 6 reported.
Monaco said he took his son to the hospital Saturday to be treated after the alleged hit. Monaco also told Hannah Storm of the "The Early Show" Monday that the character "sucker-punched" his son.
"As we were posing for pictures and I attempted to get in a shot with Tigger when he stuck his arm out and I figured the photographer could get a shot with me and my two little guys," Monaco said. "At that point he started bumping into me, so I started apologizing to him and I figured I would get out of his way because I figured it was hot out and give him some space. So, at that point I backed off and I went to take some home video of the rest of the family with him and that is when you see what happened. Out of nowhere, he ended up clocking my son. He sucker-punched him."
Monaco also told Storm that the costumed character showed annoyance toward a young girl when his handler stepped away just before his family approached.
"There is no question the costumed character hit the teen at Disney," Local 6's Tiffany Tift said. "But what is in question is the motive."
Some are calling the punch an accident and others said the video shows retaliation by the Tigger character, Local 6 News reported.
In a statement made to the sheriff's office, Fedelem said he was acting in self-defense. He claims that the child was pulling on his costume, causing him to lose his breath, according to the Local 6 News report.
Monaco filed an incident report with the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the department is investigating the incident.
"You don't come here for this," Monaco said. "Disney is supposed to be a safe place. It is supposed to be a place where you come and spend time with your family. How hard did he hit you, (son)?"
"Pretty hard," Jerry Monaco Jr. replied. "I could still feel it even though he was wearing the padded gloves."
Monaco said he noticed the alleged attack was unprovoked after looking at the video.
"At first I was upset at my son," the elder Monaco said. "I thought he did something to Tigger. But then I review it and it is pretty clear, for no reason he just clocked him in the face."
Disney officials called the family after the incident, the report said.
"I just wanted to follow up with you and let you know that we have spoken to the cast member in question and have reacted very strongly toward him," a man who identified himself as Jean Erik Redrupp, general manager of Park Operations at Disney-MGM Studios, said in a phone recording.
Disney also released a statement over the incident: "We received the complaint alleging that a character struck a guest; guest and character altercation is not tolerated. The Orange County sheriff is launching an investigation and we are conducting our own investigation and we have suspended the cast member pending the outcome."
"The general manager apologized to me," the elder Monaco said. "Everybody will come up and apologize to me but Tigger. He won't be a man about it and get out of the costume and come out and apologize to my son. I didn't want VIP treatment. I didn't want an extra day at Disney. I didn't want any of that. I wanted him to apologize and that is the one thing that they won't do."
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
Well...A Tigger's gotta do what Tigger's do best!
In that first picture I posted it looks like the kid is laughing.
Tigger was set-up.
This family wants $$$$!
Yeah. In the video, it looks like the kid has a tigth grip around Tigger's waist...there is soem jerking going on. Who knows?
When I read this story yesterday I thought the kid was a younger boy; that kid looks like he can hold his own against the evil Tigger.
I bet that kid grabbed Tiggers rear end or something like that, thinking he was being funny, but like you said who knows.
Exactly what I'm thinking.
It looked to me like the kid was still smiling after Tigger hit his face - which wasn't really a hit but more of an accidental push.
If that's true, Disney will nail them. They get hit by Gypsies all the time (set up rapes at the hotels and parking lots, hurt on rides, etc). Most people aren't aware of it but Disney has it's own police force that is probably better than the FBI.
Hard to tell what's going on between photos 1 and 2 from the link.
Photo one looks like the teenage has his wrist between the Tigger actor's right bicep and his ribs, second photo looks like the teen is pulling something from behind Tigger, the rest of the photos appear to show Tigger only having a degree of freedom with his left arm crossing over his body to distract the teen whom he might not be able to see from within the outfit.
That's what it looks like in the video
Sure looks like the kid (hardly)was screwing with tigger, and probably set up by dad. The family (who look retarded) seem to know it about to happen.
Why is the kid wearing gloves like a streetfighter?
That kid's too big to be messing with a cartoon character.
And where's the handler? The person in the costume can't see anything that's going on around him. And the handler is supposed to make sure nobody grabs the costume because it can easily choke the character or knock them off balance.
It certainly doesn't look from the pictures like the character really punched him, it looks like the character tried to shove him away. Note the character can't move, there's a family with young children in front of him, a fence behind him, and a mother to the other side. If the kid pushes at all, tigger is going to fall over the mother and cause real damage.
I bet tigger told the kid to let go of him several times, and when the kid wouldn't let go, he pushed him to get him off of him.
They other thing I'm thinking is how fast this family ran to the police and called the media with this
"A tigger is a tigger".
I cast my vote for Tigger.
I suspect Disney and amusement parks in generally have found it less expensive to play along with the fraud than to initially counter it. If it progresses and goes further, then they start to pull out the big guns.
IMHO, it ain't about righteousness, it's about business, and entertainment in this country is a big business.
I also note the perspective of the family,...nothing offered by the park is good enough,..no they want the actor to come out and apologize. Heck, since they don't know who the actor is, just get that in writing and send in another contrite tearful actor.
Yeah, your son is probably a real angel. *eye roll*
On the advice of his lawyer, no doubt.
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