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| A scammer in the Falcon's nest. |
The Atlanta Falcons have a superfan who is always attending the games, dressing up in an unique outfit and always rooting on the team to victory.
She was arrested by the Atlanta Police when she appeared at the latest home game at Mercedes Benz Stadium.
Carolyn "Birdlady" Freeman of Macon, Georgia was charged with theft by deception. The suspect is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Many fans from the Falcons and opposing teams accuse the Birdlady of stealing donations for tailgate parties.
It appears that she used the funds for her clothes, shoes, wigs, makeup, feathers, expensive box seats and away games. She also used the funds to help herself and family members.
The victims want her permanently banned from Atlanta Falcons events and her season passes revoked.
The arrest warrant, issued on Oct. 30, 2024, states that Freeman obtained $14,000 dollars to orchestrate a party for the Chiefs-Falcons game on Sept. 22, but did not show up for the event and did not return the money.
Prior to the game, Atlanta News First Investigates asked Freeman about accusations she used money she had collected for tailgates and Super Bowl events in the last 10 years to pay for car repairs, her season tickets or personal seat license at the stadium.
“I don’t need that money,” Freeman said. “I’ve never had a problem with money. I have money; my family has money.”
When asked about the Chiefs tailgate claims, she said that she was not given $14,000 dollars, adding that she did not owe them money, she said, because she spent more than they had given her.
One week before the warrant was issued, Atlanta News First Investigates revealed the Chiefs fan club’s claims along with two similar events from 2017 involving a Seahawks fan club tailgate and a trip for Falcons fans to the Super Bowl in Houston.
When asked about theses events, Freeman said that the Seahawks fan club was lying and that they had a “great tailgate.” She added that the bus company that she was helping promote the trip to the Super Bowl in 2017 was not honest with her, and that she made sure every fan got their money back.
But since the story aired, Atlanta News First Investigates found fans who say she did the same thing to them with a trip to an international game in London in 2014.
“I couldn‘t believe it, I was like, ’Man, she‘s still doing that?’” exclaimed JeNard Gibson who had paid to go on the trip with her in 2014.
Gibson said that his money had gone directly to the travel agent, so he was able to go, but others who paid Freeman directly had a different experience.
“Watching your story… she used the ‘got pulled over by the cops,’“ Gibson said pointing out similarities in his experience to the Chiefs fans experience. “She used that on us, too. She used a concussion. She was sick.” Gibson recalled.
We asked Freeman about the London trip and she said she couldn’t believe anyone would say it didn’t happen.
“We had every event that was promised,” Freeman exclaimed. “We had a great time. We had a really good time.”
Atlanta News First Investigates spoke with the event planner who booked the flights and hotels in London and she confirmed the promised events did not happen.
Freeman, who was also named a 2016 Bud Light NFL Super Fan, was featured on an Equifax billboard inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium this season. The credit bureau company removed her image after Atlanta News First Investigates inquired about recent allegations that she had taken money from the Chiefs fan club.
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| Freeman with Falcon cheerleaders. |
Tammy Southwood, an organizer for the Kansas City Chiefs Arrowhead South Georgia Chapter filed a police report with Atlanta Police on Oct. 7. Southwood told Atlanta News First Investigates that come gameday, Freeman kept telling them over the phone that she was on her way, but she was in the hospital for asthma and later said she had an incident with the police.
According to the club’s records, more than 300 people paid $14,500 to Freeman through apps like Eventbrite, Venmo and PayPal.
Southwood said she never showed up to the tailgate, but they then received photos of Freeman at the game.
In response, Freeman told us that her handyman had tripped while loading the trailer and “bust his head open, blood everywhere.” She added that he had to be taken to a local hospital and that she herself had been in the hospital the night before from pushing herself too hard.
Freeman said that by the time she made it to the tailgate location that day, the Chiefs fans had left, but she told them they could come get all of the items she bought after the game.
While Freeman and Southwood did have a contract for the tailgate, Freeman insisted that Southwood voided it via email. She said that she had proof, but never shared the email with Atlanta News First Investigates.
Catherine Baskett, a Kansas City organizer with the Chiefs fan club who helped plan the event, said that’s not true and they never heard from Freeman again after those phone calls.
Baskett said the Georgia Attorney General’s office and Atlanta Police contacted her the day after the Atlanta News First investigation aired, asking for more information and bank statements.
The fan groups from 2017 and 2024 also claimed that Freeman said part of the money collected for tailgates would go to her nonprofit, Bridlady Cares Inc.
BirdLady Cares Inc. has been registered as a 501(c)(3) with the Internal Revenue Service for almost a decade. Guidestar, a philanthropic research website, details the nonprofit’s mission as serving children affected by abuse, domestic violence and bullying.
When Atlanta News First Investigates asked how much of the money went to her nonprofit, Freeman said, “None of that went to it because I spent more than I received, so BirdLady Cares has got nothing.”
In the warrant for her arrest, the officer states that they tried to call Freeman and left her voicemails. They said they sent local police to her house for a welfare check, tried contacting her family members, and even the local hospital, but could not find her. The officer states she “disappeared.”
When Atlanta News First Investigates reached Freeman via phone the Saturday before the game, she said she had been in the hospital all week, ill with breathing problems, had thrown out her back, and a pipe in her basement had burst, but she would meet us at the game ahead of the season ticketholder tailgate.
“Duct tape and super glue, it’s an illusion,” the Birdlady said Sunday.
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| The Birdlady got caged. |
Atlanta News First Investigates confirmed Freeman is a season ticket holder with a personal seat license at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
A petition to ban Freeman from Falcons games that began in 2017, has now garnered more than 500 signatures.
A spokesperson for AMB Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Atlanta Falcons’ Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United FC; Mercedes-Benz Stadium; Atlanta Drive GC; and PGA TOUR Superstore; said this is a legal matter and declined comment on the claims or the arrest.
We asked the Georgia Attorney General’s office if they are investigating, but have not heard back.
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| Maybe she should run for president. The Birdlady mugshot looks almost bad as the Trump mugshot. |
A spokesperson for the IRS said they cannot comment on tax matters of specific taxpayers, including tax-exempt organizations.
By the way, the state of Georgia had criminally charged President-elect Donald J. Trump. He used his white privilege to delay his trial in Fulton County. The prosecutor Fani Willis won her reelection. The president-elect had pressured the state secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to cancel votes out of Fulton County.
The trial is likely postponed because of him being in transition and under federal law and the Supreme Court's immunity decision, Trump cannot be charged while in transition and office.
Whereas Freeman is charged as a private citizen, Trump, a private citizen and well established politician used every trick in the book to protect his white privilege.
Yeah, y'all gonna learn.
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