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Nets super fan and a former poker player, Jeffrey Vanchiro (AKA Jeffrey Gamblero), says he is recovering from a humiliating incident last week in which he was physically removed from the Madison Square Garden by security without his prosthetic leg. Vanchiro was accused of being unruly though others who were sitting nearby the super fan dispute these claims, taking to Twitter to defend him. He compared getting tossed from the arena like “being abducted by aliens”
Gamblero limped to his seats located along the baseline at Barclays Center prior to the second half of Friday night’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
"I'm Jeffrey Vanchiro right now," he told ESPNNewYork.com, referring to his legal name. "I'm looking for Jeffrey Gamblero. If you find him, let me know. ... I'm alive. I'm not my normal self, but I'm working towards getting back to that. I have a lot of recovery to do: physically, mentally, emotionally. My goal is to get back to being Jeffrey Gamblero by the All-Star break."
Vanchiro says he went to a hospital immediately following the incident and claims to have bumps and bruises on portions of his body.
When asked whether he had hired a lawyer and eventually would take legal action against MSG, Vanchiro said, "I try to stay away from the legal system, because that's not my field of expertise, so I don't think about things like that."
Vanchiro denies he was being unruly.
Known for his dancing skills when attending Nets games, Vanchiro says he was dancing and yelling prior to being removed.
"I started saying, 'Too easy! Too easy!' and then all hell broke loose," Vanchiro said.
He claims to have taken off the prosthetic leg for "passive resistance” and later did have it returned by security.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
