She didn’t have the ball in this game.
Comedian Elayne Boosler said she was arrested Sunday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles for refusing to leave with a purse that violated the stadium’s bag policy.
“I don’t know how your Sunday was but I bet it was better than mine,” she said in a video clip posted to her YouTube channel.
“Here are my wrists after being handcuffed,” she said, raising her arms in front of the camera to reveal bruised rings around her wrists.
Boosler, 71, was heading to the stadium for the Dodgers’ game against the New York Mets with her brand new baseball-shaped purse when she was stopped by security.
She was told she would not be allowed to bring the bag because it was not transparent and that she would have to throw it in the trash or take it back to her car.
But the Brooklyn native refused to leave because she “paid $50 to park a mile away, (it was) 80 degrees and tickets were $300 on the secondary market.”
Boosler complained that nothing on her ticket indicated the stadium’s clear bag policy. As a celebrity with close ties to the Dodgers over the years, she said she felt security should have let her in.
“I’ve sang the anthem here five times, I’ve been in the booth 50 times, I’ve done everything a comedian can do for Dodger Stadium,” the comedian said.
“I’ve played the Hollywood Stars game 10 times…let me in with the bag.”
But security would not back down. Then, Boosler said things got “heated” with one security guard in particular, who threatened to have her arrested for trespassing if she didn’t leave.
“I said, ‘All right, stop me,'” she said. Security obliged, handcuffed her and put her in the back of a police car.
The team decided to file a complaint because of the relentlessness of a single security guard, she said.
The comedian, crowned “First Lady of Stand-Up” by Rolling Stone in the 1980s, couldn’t help but joke while handcuffed to a bench in the Dodger Stadium office.
“They count all the cash in your purse and then you have to sign it,” she explained. “They said to me, ‘You have $371 in cash in your purse,’ and I said, ‘Well yeah, we were planning on buying two hot dogs and a water.'”
The Dodgers declined to comment on the incident, KTLA reported.
Boosler’s video has been viewed more than 15,000 times since it was uploaded Monday. Some people criticized him for expecting special treatment.
The Dodgers’ policy, which is similar to teams across the league, prohibits fans from bringing bags, backpacks, beach bags, hard or soft coolers and large purses.
Only adult diaper bags, diaper bags that accompany infants and clear plastic bags less than 12″ x 12″ x 6″ are permitted. Non-transparent wristbands and clutches no larger than 5″ x 8″ x 2″ are also permitted.
“For someone who has been to the stadium as many times as you say. It’s a little strange that you don’t know about the clear bag policy that is in effect at almost every stadium right now,” one person commented on Boosler’s video.
New York Post
