Boston bros with 'connections' find lost Red Sox championship banner and wanted to be compensated, but got nothing in return

The Boston Globe

• Two Boston men came into possession of the Boston Red Sox' division championship banner.
• The duo was hoping to be rewarded for finding the banner, but instead got nothing from the Red Sox.
• They know people.

A bizarre series of events left two Boston men in possession of the Boston Red Sox' 2018 division title banner before the team even clinched the American League East title.

Friends Louie Iacuzzi and James Aramal were driving on McGrath Highway in Somerville Wednesday morning when they came across the banner, which had fallen off a vendor's delivery truck and obstructed multiple lanes of traffic. Iacuzzi "ran through [expletive], like, three cars," to take the banner home, he told the Boston Globe.

Then he and Aramal began to strategize about their next move.

"My dad's telling me to put it on eBay and sell it for a lot of money, but I want to give it to the original owner," Iacuzzi said. "We want to return it, we're trying to do the right thing, but I'm not just going to hand it to them, know what I mean? Financial [compensation], maybe some tickets, we want something. We don't know what we want. We want to return it, 100%, but we would like to get something."

"We're working, too," Aramal added. "I mean, my man had to run across three lanes of traffic."

They even have "connections," noting they could have sold it to a third party, but didn't.

Check out this video of the duo taken at Iacuzzi's home in Malden:

The duo received criticism after Tony Lafuente, owner of the company that made the banner, accused them of stealing it outright. Iacuzzi was furious about the allegations:

"They lost the [expletive], they're the ones that [expletive] up," he said. "I found it, I'm trying to do the right thing ... I was never looking for money or fame or anything. I wanted to return it ever since I seen it."

According to reports from the Boston Globe that came later in the day, Iacuzzi and Aramal had no luck negotiating with the Red Sox. Franchise officials confirmed that they had the banner in their possession as of Wednesday afternoon, and a spokeswoman for the team said that the men had not been compensated in any way for returning the item.

Regardless, Iacuzzi seems to view picking up the banner as an act of service to his hometown.

"If I didn't pick it up, a hundred people would have ran over it," he said. "I don't want a million dollars. I don't need a million dollars. All I wanted was to maybe bring my family, my friends to a [expletive] baseball game, maybe meet a player. ... The flag is back home with the Boston Red Sox."