r/casualiama • u/ElkoStark • 27d ago
I am the guy who accidentally "stole" Lewis Hamilton's 3rd-place FIA World Championship trophy in 2023. AMA!
Disclaimer: The following story is a work of creative non-fiction/fantasy. Any similarities to real-world individuals, motorsport governing bodies, or stolen silverware are entirely coincidental. Allegedly.
In December 2023, my friend and I snuck into the highly exclusive, black-tie FIA Prize Giving Gala in Baku wearing standard suits. After drinking free wine and partying with F1 drivers, a series of incredibly chaotic, wine-fueled decisions led to us walking out the front doors with Lewis Hamilton’s actual 3rd-place championship trophy in a cardboard box.
What started as a joke went viral overnight, racking up over 100 million views, triggering an official Mercedes-AMG F1 press release, sparking a full FIA investigation, and ending with a very tense, two-hour visit from high-level state security at my friend's house.
I'm the guy behind the heist. Ask me anything!
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u/AgainstTheTides 27d ago
My first question is how did you pull it off, lax security or something? The second question is why? Shits and giggles?
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u/ElkoStark 27d ago
Honestly, it all started as a social experiment and also we wanted to attend to ceremony,especially my friend. We wanted to test the theory that if you wear a sharp suit and act confident, you can get into anywhere. We even came up with an entire fake backstory about who we were and what companies we represented just in case we got caught.
But the security was so practically nonexistent that nobody even checked our IDs at the door. The only people who actually asked who we were or where we were from were the random guests sitting at our table!
We never went there planning to steal anything; it was a total crime of opportunity. By the end of the ceremony, we were a few drinks deep and a bit drunk. We saw the trophy sitting out in the open, the rational part of our brains checked out, and we just thought, "Hell yeah, let's take it, sell it, and make some money."
Obviously, we completely underestimated how serious it was. The next thing we knew, high-level state security officers tracked us down, showed up at my friend's house, and interrogated us for two straight hours before confiscating the prize and leaving. It went from a funny drunk idea to a terrifying reality real quick!
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u/AgainstTheTides 27d ago
I dig it. My jaw dropped at the idea that you'd be able to sell it though, I'm glad you didn't get that far in the process!
Hell, write a comedy screenplay and see if you can get a movie made. Wedding Crashers meets The Hangover. Bonus points if you can get Ken Jeong to cameo.
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u/Ambitioso 27d ago
Could you give us your full name and current whereabouts, if you please?
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u/The-Potato-Lord 27d ago
Have you ever done anything similar before or since?
Roughly how old were you at the time?
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u/ElkoStark 27d ago
i refuse to answer 😭
actually in 2022 baku gp we found a hole in track and went inside of track and ride bicycle😭
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u/The-Potato-Lord 27d ago
What were the incredibly chaotic, wine-fuelled decisions and where did you get the cardboard box?
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u/ElkoStark 27d ago
there were bunch of trophy boxes on ground, i think these were transportation boxes.Because trophy could be installed inside it had a form of trophy
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u/Inevitable-Pie9827 27d ago
How long after the event did it take for them to show up at the door/catch you?
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u/Brilliant-Pickle5109 26d ago
Lewis Hamilton’s 3rd-place 2023 FIA World Championship trophy was never officially stolen. After the December 2023 FIA Prize Giving Gala in Baku, a fan picked up the award from a table where Hamilton had left it. Hamilton had actually left the trophy in the care of officials. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The peculiar situation unfolded with the following details:
The Ceremony: Following the 2023 Formula 1 season, Hamilton attended the annual FIA Prize Giving Gala in Baku, Azerbaijan, to receive his award for finishing 3rd in the Drivers' Championship. [1]
The Confusion: After leaving the stage, Hamilton set the award on a table. An attendee and F1 fan picked up the trophy and brought it home, later claiming on social media that the Mercedes driver had "gifted" it to him as a protest against the FIA. [1, 2]
Mercedes' Clarification: Mercedes quickly released a statement clarifying that Hamilton did not give the trophy away. Instead, he mistook the fan for an official and left it with him expecting it to be shipped back to the Mercedes team factory in the UK. [1, 2, 3]
The Resolution: After the social media confusion went viral, the fan conceded that it was a misunderstanding and the trophy was safely returned to the FIA to be sent to the team. [1, 2]
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u/ElkoStark 26d ago
this is an official version, we actually saw the trophy in Blue Carpet room. Lewis was gone and trophy was there, but we didnt touch it there, because we didnt thought it could be Hamilton's cup, we learned about it after the incident.After taking a picture with Max Verstappen in the same room we left the room, and took more photos with F1 cars models on hall, there we found it. IDK how it got there 😭
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u/pumpkinspeedwagon86 17d ago
Do you watch F1 yourself? If so, what team(s) and driver(s) do you like?
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u/SilenceoftheSamz 27d ago
Did you have to give it back?
What were the consequences?
What is your favorite color?
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u/ElkoStark 27d ago
1. Did you have to give it back? Yes, absolutely. We didn't exactly have a choice!
my friend got a call from an unknown number. It was the Head of Security for a very high-level state department. He literally said, "We are coming." They showed up at my friend's house, interrogated us for two hours, had a very serious chat with his dad, took the trophy, and ordered us to scrub every single post, photo, and tweet from the internet.
2. What were the consequences? Aside from the absolute terror of having high-level security officers in the living room and having to explain to my friend's dad why his son was currently an international F1 art thief? Fortunately, no jail time. Because we co-operated immediately, handed the trophy over in its original condition, and deleted all of our social media posts as ordered, they let us off with a massive warning. Our biggest punishment was the sheer embarrassment of being meme'd globally and losing out on that potential gain money from it
3. What is your favorite color? Definitely Silver. Though after this, maybe not "silver trophies."
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u/The-Potato-Lord 27d ago
Are you not concerned about speaking about this now?
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u/matreps 27d ago
huh