A California dad has sparked a fierce debate online after he caught a T-shirt at a rodeo from right in front of a woman — before he handed it to his young daughter.
Real estate broker Marco Caracas grabbed the shirt that was seemingly intended for a female spectator in the crowd at the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Rodeo on California’s Central Coast on Saturday.
Caracas brought the shirt back to his daughter, who was seated three rows back, before he returned to the woman and patted her on the shoulder as he pointed in his family’s direction.
Instagram/marcoandamelia
“Daddy will you catch me a shirt,” Caracas’ wife Amelia captioned the viral video, which has been seen nearly 60 million times.
“This ended with our daughter giving the shirt to the lady but man, the great lengths this man will go for his girls,” she wrote.
As the clip spread online, viewers quickly split into camps over whether Caracas was being a devoted dad or simply rude to his fellow rodeo-goer.
Carracas was accused of setting a bad example for his daughter, with one person asking, “How tf you steal something that was never yours?”
“This is showing her that it’s okay to take from others. That was not a display of kindness. It was selfishness,” one commenter wrote.
“Showing his daughter how disrespectful he is to other women. Nice lesson,” another added.
“I would have been disappointed in my dad to treat a lady like that,” someone wrote.
Plenty of viewers backed the father, arguing he was simply trying to make his daughter happy and that the shirt was fair game once it was thrown into the crowd.
“Personally, I see a man doing whatever to please his baby girl who cares what a stranger thinks,” one person wrote.
“People thinking the woman is entitled to a shirt being thrown into a crowd is wild,” another commented.
“U snooze u lose. That’s how life works,” a third said.
Caracas later defended himself on Instagram, saying in a video: “I went to the SLO County Sheriff Rodeo, caught a T-shirt that was thrown in the audience and I’ve been called every name in the book since then.
“Now my question is, if that would have been a man standing next to me, would this have gone so wild?
“The T-shirt never touched her hands. Not sure where you saw a ‘snatch’ happen…
“This is the problem with the internet, people make up their own truth. One of the funnest parts of the rodeo is the T-shirt toss. It’s no different than a bouquet toss at a wedding.”
The rodeo dust-up wasn’t the only recent fan free-for-all to blow up online. On April 28, a Cleveland Guardians fan sparked backlash after appearing to snatch a home run ball from a young girl during a game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The fan — identified online as Max Quinn — later deleted his social media after the clip went viral.
During the fifth inning, a home run by Guardians player Daniel Schneemann bounced near the girl before the man rushed over and pulled the ball from her hands.
According to the girl’s mother, Nikki DeVore, the ball was later returned after the game.
