NFL Helps Seahawks Fans After Super Bowl Tickets Stolen At SFO
NEW YORK (KPIX 5) -- The National Football League has stepped in to aid two Seahawks fans who said their Super Bowl tickets were stolen at San Francisco International Airport this week.
Nicole Hill of Seattle was passing through SFO en route to New York for Sunday's game. Hill said someone at the airport snatched her wallet out of her luggage, which had the tickets for her and her friend Sarah Agerup.
When Hill arrived in New York, she made a cardboard sign explaining that her wallet was stolen at SFO. The sign also read "Still made it to NYC. Go Hawks!!!"
Hill said she used a spare passport in her suitcase to get to the city. "I had a wonderful New Yorker who drove me from the airport to my hotel last night," Hill said. "You guys are great people."
Hill and Agerup were in Times Square when they appeared on sister station WCBS-TV's newscast Friday evening. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was apparently watching the newscast, and league officials contacted the TV station to offer the women new tickets to the game.
"It has been a long 24 hours, I can admit to that, but we're here in New York, and apparently my friend is crying about something good, so I think our luck may be changing," Hill told the NFL representative over the phone. She then got the news that new tickets would be coming.
The women were crying tears of joy as a crowd cheered.
When asked what she thought of New Yorkers, Hill said, "I don't ever want to leave."
The call was bittersweet for Agerup, whose father was a trainer for the Seahawks in the early 1990s. Both of her parents were killed by a drunken driver years later.
Now, she'll watch the team that first brought her mom and dad together on a blind date, in the Super Bowl.
An airport manager told KPIX 5 that he was not aware of the theft, but said he was glad they were able to receive tickets to the game.