September 2, 2025 • 23 mins
The Polish, millionaire CEO who was caught on camera grabbing a hat from a young boy has said he made a “grave mistake” and has been given a “lesson in humility.” That’s a far cry from the earlier statement that media outlets falsely attributed to him, unapologetically claiming, “if you were faster you would have it.” Amy and T.J. talk about the rush to judgement and whether we can separate bad judgement from a bad human.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey there, folks. It is September the second, and the
hat snatcher has apologized. Is that enough? Apparently to a
lot of people, that's not enough and think he should
suffer much much more. And with that, welcome to this
episode of Amy and TJ Romes. This story really really,
really really took off because it looks bad. It looks
(00:25):
really bad. There's a tennis superstar handing a hat to
a kid, a fan, a little fan, and a grown
man snatches it. It looked awful.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
The reality is this was caught on a live broadcast,
so there was nothing that was.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Obviously.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Neither one of them knew they were on camera, so
what happened was real. It happened in real time, and
you can slow it down and watch it happen. The
tennis star Camille Maijak was getting inundated with fans. Everyone
was very excited, and so he was handing a bunch
of stuff out. But you can clearly see he is
handing the hat off his head to this seeming like
(01:03):
nine ten year old kid and you can just see
him excitedly reaching for it as a grown ass man
literally comes in from the side, swoops in and just
takes the hat, and then you can see the kid
whose jaw literally drops and says, wait, I forget yes,
(01:24):
I do.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I have his actual quote.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I can tell you what this kid actually say to
the man who just took and the man he turns
out it's forty.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Forty two years two years old.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
We see the kid turns to the grown man and
almost exclaim like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, the kid says, what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's exactly what that brock was a little boy's name,
and that's exactly what he said, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
So you imagine this happened. This is live again, no editing.
So this happened last Thursday at the US Open. We
know it's hot right now and going on, but this
is a big, big, big part of the US Open.
And this is the thing I say, Robes, I love
most about the US Open that first week is you
have so much access to the side court. You can
get up close and personal with a lot of the athletes.
(02:09):
But you see them have these gaggles almost with these
kids that they hold who have these big tennis balls
or a hat or something, trying to get an autograph.
And these tennis stars take the time to do it Now.
I have been to the US Open and seen Serena
Williams signing stuff, walking right by her as she's doing it.
(02:30):
I was excited as anything. You know what I did. No,
that's for the kids. It's for no matter how excited
you are, So start with that with this guy. Why
is he even competing with a child or an audience?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It looks terrible.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And then when we find out who this guy is,
because of course, what happens is this video goes up,
people take note of it. They start slowing it down
frame by frame. They find out who this guy is,
and it turns out his name is Peter Shazak.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
He is a.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Polish millionaire CEO. He owns a paving company, and he
was excited that a fellow Polish tennis star had won.
So he was swept up in the excitement. His family
was with him, his wife was with him, and he
says his two sons were with him as well. But God,
even as a father, I feel like that makes it
even worse.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
It's maybe if he was a single guy, he wasn't
thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
He's a father and he still stole from someone else's child.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
This is where I will step in as and I
think some parents and you will too, the things we
have done and try to go get for our.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Kids at the expense of someone else's child.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We're not saying that, but to see him in there
clamoring for something for his kid, maybe I could buy
that part of it. And again, folks, we are not
at any way editorializing this video. It is unmistakable.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, if you haven't seen it, please go watch it.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yes, so it's this is not an interpretation of the video.
What happened happened. Again, he's there, and so we have
the answer for why he's there. The video now goes
everywhere and again rose after he snatches the hat, I
don't even think he acknowledges the boy next to him. Oh,
he turns and hands the hat to I believe it's
(04:16):
his wife.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I thought he stuffed it in a back.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, the woman was holding the bag.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
He put it in a bag, immediately goes in.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
The kid is on the video literally looking at him
like what have you done?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Like why can't I get my hat back?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And the man completely ignores the kid And maybe he
didn't see him. I have a hard time believing that.
But fine, he doesn't even acknowledge the kid to the
point where it's almost apparent he knows the kid is upset,
and he doesn't want to turn around and look at
the kid. He doesn't want to acknowledge the pain he's
just caused, so he keeps his back turned to the
(04:50):
kid the entire time.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
And the kid is a door. And what makes it worse,
the kid is adorable, like he is the perfect tennis fan.
He's like ten years old. They forgot name. His name
was Brock, that's perfect. But he had this long, shaggy
kind of blonde hair, right, yes, he was just perfect,
like how are you up? But he reacted the way
all of us did, like what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So genuinely it was and he was like did that
just actually happens?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
That's what I thought?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And you could see that was the energy and everything
that kid was putting out was like what the hell?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
How did this man just do that?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Okay, So to all of this, so this is the drama,
this is the situation, this is the video that so
many have seen and robes it actually got worse. So
he goes viral with the video, people figure out who
he is, and then he goes even more viral after
he I said that in air quotes puts out a
(05:46):
statement in response to how viral he has gone.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And so I actually want to be fully transparent here
because when we get ready in the morning for morning run,
we each take different stories. This was my story, and
I was watching Obviously I watched the video, but then
I was watching news reports, and that's where I saw
that this CEO, millionaire Peter Shazaik, put out a statement
(06:11):
and the news anchors were just aghast. They were editorializing
in a way that most news anchors don't, but just saying, hey,
I'm having a hard time reading this, but guys, take
a listen to what this man put out in a statement.
And it was everywhere and everyone was reacting to this
statement that was allegedly written by the man who stole
the hat. It reads, yes I took it, Yes I
(06:34):
did it quickly. But as I've always said, life is
first come, first served. I understand that some people might
not like it, but please, let's not make a global
scandal out of the hat.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
It's just a hat. If you were faster, you would
have it, which is just the most awful thing.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And then it goes on to basically say, if you
keep complaining about me and my company, because he's recognizing,
or at least acknowledging in this statement that people have
now found out who he works for, that he's a
CEO of this company. Basically, I will pursue legal action
against you if you continue to say terrible things about me.
And then the news anchor was saying, hey, and this
(07:15):
was all in Polish. It's been translated. This is the
best translation. But my goodness, how could somebody say this
after they've done what they've not? People were just outraged.
So then that created a whole other heap of hate.
And I had put this in Morning Run and you're like, babe,
it doesn't look like he actually said the statement. I
was like, what, So it goes to show and I
(07:38):
just want to point this out. It's always whatever is reported,
which is the salacious, horrific thing that he was reported
to have said. That's everywhere everywhere. I did not see
anywhere that had taken it down or had said we
put this up an error. It turns out he didn't
make this statement. We actually don't know where this statement came,
none of that, And I actually had to do a
(08:00):
deep dive to find anyone who even briefly acknowledged that
there was a false statement potentially put out, or that
they didn't know where this statement.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
The retraction is never there. The amount of press you
get for the wrong.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Information is ginormous, and then there's almost no attention given
at all to the false nature of that statement. So
it turns out he didn't actually put that out there,
and when you read it, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
As soon as you read it, and that this has
happened a couple of times. It's something recently. I can't
remember the incident, but something like this happened where somebody reacted.
There was a statement that went around that was just
it was fake. It's fault. But it gets going, and
so so much negativity, so much hate has gone this
guy's way, and so much of it that we have
read is specifically based on comments they think he made
(08:54):
that he actually didn't make. And just it has to
please everybody. Take a beat. Please before you condemn somebody.
Tell someone that they need to lose their job, lose
their way of life, their company needs to fold. He
made a mistake. We're not defending that, but Robes, this
(09:15):
is another prime example of how dangerous this is. And
you damn right, this is very personal to us because
a lie was told, it got going and there's nothing
you can do to stop it, and it cost us
careers that we had. Don't know what it might end
(09:37):
up costing this guy, but we have seen all kinds
of hate going his way, and they specifically say it's
based on what he said in that statement, that statement
that he actually didn't say, what the what are we
supposed to do?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
It's gutting because you can, you can obviously still feel
upset by what you saw by this man's actions, absolutely
say what he did was wrong. And I believe to
think that this false statement that was said as if
he said it, and then the other layer, the whole
other round of hate that came his way because of it.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Think about that.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Imagine, once someone says you said something, it doesn't matter
if you said it or not. And to your point, TJ,
it is personal. Once people say a picture represents something
that it doesn't, you can't untell that story. And it's
so difficult when every day people will bring back up
something that actually was never true and you can never
(10:34):
fully combat it. So yes, on that level, I feel
for him because yes, he did something wrong, Yes he
needs to apologize, which we'll get into, and he did,
and yes, are those people still humans who have an
opportunity to do better, be better, grow from this, and actually,
can we give people second chances? Can we give people
(10:57):
a beat to recognize where they made a mistake and
then do better. I just it's disheartening to me how
much we just always want a good guy and a
bad guy. We can't ever accept the fact that maybe
someone is made a bad choice but isn't a bad person.
We don't ever give people that I guess, that that
(11:21):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Like just that grace.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
There's no other word for it other than grace.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Because the thing always we judge other people by their
worst actions, and we judge ourselves by our best intentions.
And so the way we can keep that balance. And
again I've learned this through therapists and all kinds of
people who have we've talked to over the years about projecting, Like,
why are we attacking this guy for a mistake? We like,
(11:47):
we can put we can heap everything on him because
we see what he screwed up, we see the mistake
he made, Well, how bad of a mistake have you
made this week last week in your family that we
all don't know about. He made an awful mistake. We
are not rose and I are not defending at all
what this dude did, but I'm also not defending the
(12:10):
response to it either. So this man, yes, he did
put out a statement, kind of a linky statement as
as well, and we'll let you hear word for word
what he said and how he apologized unequivocally for what happened.
But also we want to continue to ask that question,
(12:31):
what punishment does this man deserve and what right do
you have to decide it.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Welcome back to this edition of Amy and TJ, where
we are talking about the hat grab that went round
the world from Peter Shazik taking that hat that was
intended clearly for a ten year old boy next to him.
He has actually dealt with not only the backlash from
(13:09):
that action that he certainly needs to and has taken
responsibility for, but he is dealing with backlash for a
statement he never even made, where someone jumped in in
Polish to make it seem more legit, saying something outrageous
that he never actually said. So, if you're interested in
hearing what SHA's Eric actually said, what his true statement was,
(13:32):
We actually have it here for you, and this is legit.
This came from him directly, not from someone posing as him.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
And we'll piece this together because it's kind of kind
of long here. But he starts by saying, due to
the situation that occurred during Camille Myijack's eijacks match at
the US Open, I would like to sincerely apologize to
the injured boy, his family, all the fans, and the
player himself. I made a great mistake. In the midst
(14:02):
of emotion amidst the crowd celebration after his victory, I
was convinced the tennis player was offering his cap to
me for my sons, who had asked for an autograph earlier.
A mistaken belief made me instinctively reach out. Today, I
know I did something that looked like deliberately taking a
(14:24):
souvenir from a child. It wasn't my intention, but it
doesn't change the fact that I hurt the boy and
disappointed the fans. You buy that so far, so good?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah, I think that was a really good apology. I
think that's a really good apology. I have to say, look,
it's it's embarrassing, it's humiliating to admit that you let
your own excitement and maybe it was for what you
wanted for your children to overtake logic, overtake just having
(14:55):
any sort of situational awareness. How many times do we
encounter and do I find myself all of us do
find ourselves not being situationally aware. We know what we want,
we know what we need, we know what maybe our
children want, and we're not thinking about other people's kids.
We're not thinking about the people around us. And all
of us have done that to some degree in a
(15:15):
crowd at some.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Point, and sometimes it just comes off as inconsiderate. Maybe
you step off in front of somebody when you getting
off an elevator, maybe you don't give a little gear.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Crowded streets, small whatever.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Little things happen, and we are all unaware, and we
all make mistakes. He made it in front of cameras,
and we made it to the worst possible victim, right,
but it was still a mistake, yes, And be.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
That I do think that people, we all make mistakes,
and I think that so far, I really appreciate this
apology because unfortunately the statement that was attributed to him
earlier was so egregious. I just worry that that's the
only one people who are going to read. That's the
only one people are gonna see. People aren't going to
actually hear what he really did have to say, because sadly,
(16:05):
when you do take a beat and you don't actually
immediately respond, turns out people will respond for you and
you can't undo it. That's what's so scary about the
world we live in now.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
But why can't we all we just assume, I don't know,
you know what robes this is. Probably I should give
people a break. Why wouldn't they just believe what I
don't know, believe what they see. There's a statement just
running around, Babe.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
I believed it, just babe.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I not only did I see it, but then I
was like, let me go actually investigate. And I started
pulling up news reports and they were all repeating this
false statement.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
So, yeah, I fell for it. I fell for it.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So his statement, his actual statement goes on to say
the cap was given to the boy and an apology
to the family, meaning he returned the cap. I hope
I have at least partially repaired the harm. I also
want to make it clear, neither I, my wife, nor
my sons commented on this situation in any way social
(17:06):
media and on any other portal. We did not use
the services of any law.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Firm in this regard.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
All alleged statements appearing online are not our own.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Now, would that trigger anyone to take something down? Know?
Who's going to read that? Who's going to see this one?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
No?
Speaker 1 (17:23):
This is because it's not sexy. Right Still, it doesn't
make a cool headline, it's not fun and funny. You
can't attack a guy for this. What do you attack
him for? Yes, he messed up? Please, I hope no one.
We've said it right.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
You're not defending what he absolutely made a mistake.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
He made a mistake. But that's where we're we are.
We end up right having an indictment of the person's
character based on the moment that they have. So you
make a mistake, that means you are evil?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
You are your mistake.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yes, I don't know, none of us.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
None of us want to be our worst mistake, and
we don't want to be remembered from worse mistake, and
we don't want to never be able to move past
our worst mistake. So if you don't want that for yourself.
My hope is that we can all extend that to him.
He goes on to say, my wife and I have
been involved in helping children and young athletes for years,
(18:19):
but this situation has shown me that one moment of
inattention can destroy years of work and support. It is
a painful, but a lesson in humility. It is painful,
but a lesson in humility is needed.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Therefore, I will be even more actively involved in initiatives
supporting children and young people, and in actions against violence
and hate. I believe that only through actions can I
rebuild the lost trust. Once again, I apologize to everyone
I have disappointed. Please understand. Out of concern for my family,
(18:55):
I have decided to disable commenting on this post.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
That was actually really smart.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yours, sincerely, Peter Shazik.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
That's a that's an apology, well done.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
I agree, is it not? Yes?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
So, I mean he's taken full responsibility for it. But this,
but I mean, this should be This should be a
template for apologies. One moment of inattention can destroy years
of work and support one moment. And he's right, and
that sucks. But how many CEOs, how many things have
we seen where companies are hurting? I guess Tesla is
(19:32):
a high profile situation for all kinds of reasons, but
just any moment that the ceo appears to be doing
something wrong, the whole company can.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, Walter no, And speaking of his company on Google,
the company has received so they've found out the company
he is ceo of the company now has plummeted to
just one point two stars. So you know you can
you can rate a company. It's a sick stars to
one star on Google review. His company is now at
(20:03):
one point two stars. One of the reviews. I'll read
it for you just to give you an idea of
what people are leaving in the review column. The ceo
of this company doesn't have any morals, stealing from children
and then defending himself in public. Don't ever do business
with this company.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Based on a falsehood. She is telling the world, don't
do business here this guy. She's trying to shut him down.
I don't know what to just please caution, I just caution, folks,
I caution you. Even if you hate what he did,
which I hate what he did, he apologized for it,
(20:46):
and why do we start with he must be evil
for why don't we start with, Okay, this was a
good guy who made a mistake versus he's a terrible guy,
and he just confirmed it for me.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
We all have moments of bad judgment, yes, And if
you're honest with.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Yourself, you know you have.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And there have been so many of those moments where
you are thanking God that no one else saw, that
no one else knew, that no one else was rolling
on you, that no one else was recording you.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
With what you did or said or whatever.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
But we've all been there, not to that extent. And
I'm not saying that that is what we like. I
get it, and we all feel better about ourselves thinking
I would never do that. And see, that's what this
all comes down to. We watched that video and we
say I would never do that. He must be an asshole,
and then we feel better about ourselves. It really does
come back to that.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
And again, this is not something we have come up
with our own. These are things we have learned through lessons.
We have been taught through life, through experience, and through
yes therapy, And you know what we have throughout our lives.
Rogues have access to a bunch of thought leaders and
a bunch of people who are trying to help people
get through these moments, and that's one of the things
(21:57):
they absolutely do talk to us about a lot. So
we're all working on it. We're trying to do better.
But I this is not an episode to defend now
the actions of Peter Shaseric, but this is one to
make sure we are not defending as well the actions
(22:17):
of so many people and how they've reacted to something.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
And I do think it's just another lesson in how
we view how we receive news, whether it's through TikTok
or accredited news stations who get it wrong sometimes who
fall for things. I fell for it this morning as well.
But just to view what you read, to view what
you hear with a little touch of skepticism, just keep
a space open for the fact that you might not
(22:42):
have all the facts, and then just allow yourself that
space for consideration. And I think that's just a big
part of how hopefully we can all do better in
getting information and then processing that information. So it was
a tough thing to watch. I feel like there's so
many lessons in it. And look, I hope that you know.
(23:04):
The little boy was great. He got celebrated by his
tennis star. He got a new hat, he got a
bunch of extra merch, he got a big photo op.
It actually created a really special moment, like this terrible
thing that happened actually created a really special moment for him.
And that's all online as well. So look, it kind
of feels like there was a happy ending, so to speak,
(23:25):
and if everyone can grow and learn from it, it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
A bad thing.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You know, that kid is having a good time at school.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I love Yeah, he's a hero of the day.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
He's having a good time. All right. Well, we always
appreciate Ja haying with us for my dear partner, Aby
Robot on t J. Holmes. We'll see y'allso
Hey there, folks. It is September the second, and the
hat snatcher has apologized. Is that enough? Apparently to a
lot of people, that's not enough and think he should
suffer much much more. And with that, welcome to this
episode of Amy and TJ Romes. This story really really,
really really took off because it looks bad. It looks
(00:25):
really bad. There's a tennis superstar handing a hat to
a kid, a fan, a little fan, and a grown
man snatches it. It looked awful.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
The reality is this was caught on a live broadcast,
so there was nothing that was.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Obviously.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Neither one of them knew they were on camera, so
what happened was real. It happened in real time, and
you can slow it down and watch it happen. The
tennis star Camille Maijak was getting inundated with fans. Everyone
was very excited, and so he was handing a bunch
of stuff out. But you can clearly see he is
handing the hat off his head to this seeming like
(01:03):
nine ten year old kid and you can just see
him excitedly reaching for it as a grown ass man
literally comes in from the side, swoops in and just
takes the hat, and then you can see the kid
whose jaw literally drops and says, wait, I forget yes,
(01:24):
I do.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I have his actual quote.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I can tell you what this kid actually say to
the man who just took and the man he turns
out it's forty.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Forty two years two years old.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
We see the kid turns to the grown man and
almost exclaim like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, the kid says, what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's exactly what that brock was a little boy's name,
and that's exactly what he said, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
So you imagine this happened. This is live again, no editing.
So this happened last Thursday at the US Open. We
know it's hot right now and going on, but this
is a big, big, big part of the US Open.
And this is the thing I say, Robes, I love
most about the US Open that first week is you
have so much access to the side court. You can
get up close and personal with a lot of the athletes.
(02:09):
But you see them have these gaggles almost with these
kids that they hold who have these big tennis balls
or a hat or something, trying to get an autograph.
And these tennis stars take the time to do it Now.
I have been to the US Open and seen Serena
Williams signing stuff, walking right by her as she's doing it.
(02:30):
I was excited as anything. You know what I did. No,
that's for the kids. It's for no matter how excited
you are, So start with that with this guy. Why
is he even competing with a child or an audience?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It looks terrible.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And then when we find out who this guy is,
because of course, what happens is this video goes up,
people take note of it. They start slowing it down
frame by frame. They find out who this guy is,
and it turns out his name is Peter Shazak.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
He is a.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Polish millionaire CEO. He owns a paving company, and he
was excited that a fellow Polish tennis star had won.
So he was swept up in the excitement. His family
was with him, his wife was with him, and he
says his two sons were with him as well. But God,
even as a father, I feel like that makes it
even worse.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
It's maybe if he was a single guy, he wasn't
thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
He's a father and he still stole from someone else's child.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
This is where I will step in as and I
think some parents and you will too, the things we
have done and try to go get for our.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Kids at the expense of someone else's child.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We're not saying that, but to see him in there
clamoring for something for his kid, maybe I could buy
that part of it. And again, folks, we are not
at any way editorializing this video. It is unmistakable.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, if you haven't seen it, please go watch it.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yes, so it's this is not an interpretation of the video.
What happened happened. Again, he's there, and so we have
the answer for why he's there. The video now goes
everywhere and again rose after he snatches the hat, I
don't even think he acknowledges the boy next to him. Oh,
he turns and hands the hat to I believe it's
(04:16):
his wife.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I thought he stuffed it in a back.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, the woman was holding the bag.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
He put it in a bag, immediately goes in.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
The kid is on the video literally looking at him
like what have you done?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Like why can't I get my hat back?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And the man completely ignores the kid And maybe he
didn't see him. I have a hard time believing that.
But fine, he doesn't even acknowledge the kid to the
point where it's almost apparent he knows the kid is upset,
and he doesn't want to turn around and look at
the kid. He doesn't want to acknowledge the pain he's
just caused, so he keeps his back turned to the
(04:50):
kid the entire time.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
And the kid is a door. And what makes it worse,
the kid is adorable, like he is the perfect tennis fan.
He's like ten years old. They forgot name. His name
was Brock, that's perfect. But he had this long, shaggy
kind of blonde hair, right, yes, he was just perfect,
like how are you up? But he reacted the way
all of us did, like what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So genuinely it was and he was like did that
just actually happens?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
That's what I thought?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And you could see that was the energy and everything
that kid was putting out was like what the hell?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
How did this man just do that?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Okay, So to all of this, so this is the drama,
this is the situation, this is the video that so
many have seen and robes it actually got worse. So
he goes viral with the video, people figure out who
he is, and then he goes even more viral after
he I said that in air quotes puts out a
(05:46):
statement in response to how viral he has gone.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And so I actually want to be fully transparent here
because when we get ready in the morning for morning run,
we each take different stories. This was my story, and
I was watching Obviously I watched the video, but then
I was watching news reports, and that's where I saw
that this CEO, millionaire Peter Shazaik, put out a statement
(06:11):
and the news anchors were just aghast. They were editorializing
in a way that most news anchors don't, but just saying, hey,
I'm having a hard time reading this, but guys, take
a listen to what this man put out in a statement.
And it was everywhere and everyone was reacting to this
statement that was allegedly written by the man who stole
the hat. It reads, yes I took it, Yes I
(06:34):
did it quickly. But as I've always said, life is
first come, first served. I understand that some people might
not like it, but please, let's not make a global
scandal out of the hat.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
It's just a hat. If you were faster, you would
have it, which is just the most awful thing.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And then it goes on to basically say, if you
keep complaining about me and my company, because he's recognizing,
or at least acknowledging in this statement that people have
now found out who he works for, that he's a
CEO of this company. Basically, I will pursue legal action
against you if you continue to say terrible things about me.
And then the news anchor was saying, hey, and this
(07:15):
was all in Polish. It's been translated. This is the
best translation. But my goodness, how could somebody say this
after they've done what they've not? People were just outraged.
So then that created a whole other heap of hate.
And I had put this in Morning Run and you're like, babe,
it doesn't look like he actually said the statement. I
was like, what, So it goes to show and I
(07:38):
just want to point this out. It's always whatever is reported,
which is the salacious, horrific thing that he was reported
to have said. That's everywhere everywhere. I did not see
anywhere that had taken it down or had said we
put this up an error. It turns out he didn't
make this statement. We actually don't know where this statement came,
none of that, And I actually had to do a
(08:00):
deep dive to find anyone who even briefly acknowledged that
there was a false statement potentially put out, or that
they didn't know where this statement.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
The retraction is never there. The amount of press you
get for the wrong.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Information is ginormous, and then there's almost no attention given
at all to the false nature of that statement. So
it turns out he didn't actually put that out there,
and when you read it, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
As soon as you read it, and that this has
happened a couple of times. It's something recently. I can't
remember the incident, but something like this happened where somebody reacted.
There was a statement that went around that was just
it was fake. It's fault. But it gets going, and
so so much negativity, so much hate has gone this
guy's way, and so much of it that we have
read is specifically based on comments they think he made
(08:54):
that he actually didn't make. And just it has to
please everybody. Take a beat. Please before you condemn somebody.
Tell someone that they need to lose their job, lose
their way of life, their company needs to fold. He
made a mistake. We're not defending that, but Robes, this
(09:15):
is another prime example of how dangerous this is. And
you damn right, this is very personal to us because
a lie was told, it got going and there's nothing
you can do to stop it, and it cost us
careers that we had. Don't know what it might end
(09:37):
up costing this guy, but we have seen all kinds
of hate going his way, and they specifically say it's
based on what he said in that statement, that statement
that he actually didn't say, what the what are we
supposed to do?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
It's gutting because you can, you can obviously still feel
upset by what you saw by this man's actions, absolutely
say what he did was wrong. And I believe to
think that this false statement that was said as if
he said it, and then the other layer, the whole
other round of hate that came his way because of it.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Think about that.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Imagine, once someone says you said something, it doesn't matter
if you said it or not. And to your point, TJ,
it is personal. Once people say a picture represents something
that it doesn't, you can't untell that story. And it's
so difficult when every day people will bring back up
something that actually was never true and you can never
(10:34):
fully combat it. So yes, on that level, I feel
for him because yes, he did something wrong, Yes he
needs to apologize, which we'll get into, and he did,
and yes, are those people still humans who have an
opportunity to do better, be better, grow from this, and actually,
can we give people second chances? Can we give people
(10:57):
a beat to recognize where they made a mistake and
then do better. I just it's disheartening to me how
much we just always want a good guy and a
bad guy. We can't ever accept the fact that maybe
someone is made a bad choice but isn't a bad person.
We don't ever give people that I guess, that that
(11:21):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Like just that grace.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
There's no other word for it other than grace.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Because the thing always we judge other people by their
worst actions, and we judge ourselves by our best intentions.
And so the way we can keep that balance. And
again I've learned this through therapists and all kinds of
people who have we've talked to over the years about projecting, Like,
why are we attacking this guy for a mistake? We like,
(11:47):
we can put we can heap everything on him because
we see what he screwed up, we see the mistake
he made, Well, how bad of a mistake have you
made this week last week in your family that we
all don't know about. He made an awful mistake. We
are not rose and I are not defending at all
what this dude did, but I'm also not defending the
(12:10):
response to it either. So this man, yes, he did
put out a statement, kind of a linky statement as
as well, and we'll let you hear word for word
what he said and how he apologized unequivocally for what happened.
But also we want to continue to ask that question,
(12:31):
what punishment does this man deserve and what right do
you have to decide it.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Welcome back to this edition of Amy and TJ, where
we are talking about the hat grab that went round
the world from Peter Shazik taking that hat that was
intended clearly for a ten year old boy next to him.
He has actually dealt with not only the backlash from
(13:09):
that action that he certainly needs to and has taken
responsibility for, but he is dealing with backlash for a
statement he never even made, where someone jumped in in
Polish to make it seem more legit, saying something outrageous
that he never actually said. So, if you're interested in
hearing what SHA's Eric actually said, what his true statement was,
(13:32):
We actually have it here for you, and this is legit.
This came from him directly, not from someone posing as him.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
And we'll piece this together because it's kind of kind
of long here. But he starts by saying, due to
the situation that occurred during Camille Myijack's eijacks match at
the US Open, I would like to sincerely apologize to
the injured boy, his family, all the fans, and the
player himself. I made a great mistake. In the midst
(14:02):
of emotion amidst the crowd celebration after his victory, I
was convinced the tennis player was offering his cap to
me for my sons, who had asked for an autograph earlier.
A mistaken belief made me instinctively reach out. Today, I
know I did something that looked like deliberately taking a
(14:24):
souvenir from a child. It wasn't my intention, but it
doesn't change the fact that I hurt the boy and
disappointed the fans. You buy that so far, so good?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah, I think that was a really good apology. I
think that's a really good apology. I have to say, look,
it's it's embarrassing, it's humiliating to admit that you let
your own excitement and maybe it was for what you
wanted for your children to overtake logic, overtake just having
(14:55):
any sort of situational awareness. How many times do we
encounter and do I find myself all of us do
find ourselves not being situationally aware. We know what we want,
we know what we need, we know what maybe our
children want, and we're not thinking about other people's kids.
We're not thinking about the people around us. And all
of us have done that to some degree in a
(15:15):
crowd at some.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Point, and sometimes it just comes off as inconsiderate. Maybe
you step off in front of somebody when you getting
off an elevator, maybe you don't give a little gear.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Crowded streets, small whatever.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Little things happen, and we are all unaware, and we
all make mistakes. He made it in front of cameras,
and we made it to the worst possible victim, right,
but it was still a mistake, yes, And be.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
That I do think that people, we all make mistakes,
and I think that so far, I really appreciate this
apology because unfortunately the statement that was attributed to him
earlier was so egregious. I just worry that that's the
only one people who are going to read. That's the
only one people are gonna see. People aren't going to
actually hear what he really did have to say, because sadly,
(16:05):
when you do take a beat and you don't actually
immediately respond, turns out people will respond for you and
you can't undo it. That's what's so scary about the
world we live in now.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
But why can't we all we just assume, I don't know,
you know what robes this is. Probably I should give
people a break. Why wouldn't they just believe what I
don't know, believe what they see. There's a statement just
running around, Babe.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
I believed it, just babe.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I not only did I see it, but then I
was like, let me go actually investigate. And I started
pulling up news reports and they were all repeating this
false statement.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
So, yeah, I fell for it. I fell for it.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So his statement, his actual statement goes on to say
the cap was given to the boy and an apology
to the family, meaning he returned the cap. I hope
I have at least partially repaired the harm. I also
want to make it clear, neither I, my wife, nor
my sons commented on this situation in any way social
(17:06):
media and on any other portal. We did not use
the services of any law.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Firm in this regard.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
All alleged statements appearing online are not our own.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Now, would that trigger anyone to take something down? Know?
Who's going to read that? Who's going to see this one?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
No?
Speaker 1 (17:23):
This is because it's not sexy. Right Still, it doesn't
make a cool headline, it's not fun and funny. You
can't attack a guy for this. What do you attack
him for? Yes, he messed up? Please, I hope no one.
We've said it right.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
You're not defending what he absolutely made a mistake.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
He made a mistake. But that's where we're we are.
We end up right having an indictment of the person's
character based on the moment that they have. So you
make a mistake, that means you are evil?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
You are your mistake.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yes, I don't know, none of us.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
None of us want to be our worst mistake, and
we don't want to be remembered from worse mistake, and
we don't want to never be able to move past
our worst mistake. So if you don't want that for yourself.
My hope is that we can all extend that to him.
He goes on to say, my wife and I have
been involved in helping children and young athletes for years,
(18:19):
but this situation has shown me that one moment of
inattention can destroy years of work and support. It is
a painful, but a lesson in humility. It is painful,
but a lesson in humility is needed.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Therefore, I will be even more actively involved in initiatives
supporting children and young people, and in actions against violence
and hate. I believe that only through actions can I
rebuild the lost trust. Once again, I apologize to everyone
I have disappointed. Please understand. Out of concern for my family,
(18:55):
I have decided to disable commenting on this post.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
That was actually really smart.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yours, sincerely, Peter Shazik.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
That's a that's an apology, well done.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
I agree, is it not? Yes?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
So, I mean he's taken full responsibility for it. But this,
but I mean, this should be This should be a
template for apologies. One moment of inattention can destroy years
of work and support one moment. And he's right, and
that sucks. But how many CEOs, how many things have
we seen where companies are hurting? I guess Tesla is
(19:32):
a high profile situation for all kinds of reasons, but
just any moment that the ceo appears to be doing
something wrong, the whole company can.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, Walter no, And speaking of his company on Google,
the company has received so they've found out the company
he is ceo of the company now has plummeted to
just one point two stars. So you know you can
you can rate a company. It's a sick stars to
one star on Google review. His company is now at
(20:03):
one point two stars. One of the reviews. I'll read
it for you just to give you an idea of
what people are leaving in the review column. The ceo
of this company doesn't have any morals, stealing from children
and then defending himself in public. Don't ever do business
with this company.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Based on a falsehood. She is telling the world, don't
do business here this guy. She's trying to shut him down.
I don't know what to just please caution, I just caution, folks,
I caution you. Even if you hate what he did,
which I hate what he did, he apologized for it,
(20:46):
and why do we start with he must be evil
for why don't we start with, Okay, this was a
good guy who made a mistake versus he's a terrible guy,
and he just confirmed it for me.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
We all have moments of bad judgment, yes, And if
you're honest with.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Yourself, you know you have.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And there have been so many of those moments where
you are thanking God that no one else saw, that
no one else knew, that no one else was rolling
on you, that no one else was recording you.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
With what you did or said or whatever.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
But we've all been there, not to that extent. And
I'm not saying that that is what we like. I
get it, and we all feel better about ourselves thinking
I would never do that. And see, that's what this
all comes down to. We watched that video and we
say I would never do that. He must be an asshole,
and then we feel better about ourselves. It really does
come back to that.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
And again, this is not something we have come up
with our own. These are things we have learned through lessons.
We have been taught through life, through experience, and through
yes therapy, And you know what we have throughout our lives.
Rogues have access to a bunch of thought leaders and
a bunch of people who are trying to help people
get through these moments, and that's one of the things
(21:57):
they absolutely do talk to us about a lot. So
we're all working on it. We're trying to do better.
But I this is not an episode to defend now
the actions of Peter Shaseric, but this is one to
make sure we are not defending as well the actions
(22:17):
of so many people and how they've reacted to something.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
And I do think it's just another lesson in how
we view how we receive news, whether it's through TikTok
or accredited news stations who get it wrong sometimes who
fall for things. I fell for it this morning as well.
But just to view what you read, to view what
you hear with a little touch of skepticism, just keep
a space open for the fact that you might not
(22:42):
have all the facts, and then just allow yourself that
space for consideration. And I think that's just a big
part of how hopefully we can all do better in
getting information and then processing that information. So it was
a tough thing to watch. I feel like there's so
many lessons in it. And look, I hope that you know.
(23:04):
The little boy was great. He got celebrated by his
tennis star. He got a new hat, he got a
bunch of extra merch, he got a big photo op.
It actually created a really special moment, like this terrible
thing that happened actually created a really special moment for him.
And that's all online as well. So look, it kind
of feels like there was a happy ending, so to speak,
(23:25):
and if everyone can grow and learn from it, it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
A bad thing.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You know, that kid is having a good time at school.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I love Yeah, he's a hero of the day.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
He's having a good time. All right. Well, we always
appreciate Ja haying with us for my dear partner, Aby
Robot on t J. Holmes. We'll see y'allso
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