“Never meet your heroes” has never rung truer for some kids in Florida after a disaster of an event left them and their parents disappointed. A meet and greet with the famed kids’ show host, Ms. Rachel, in an ice cream parlor resulted in outrage; many thought they were going to meet the real Ms. Rachel, only to be met with an impersonator. To make matters worse, the Ms. Rachel impersonator was arrested soon after the event.
The unfortunate meet and greet took place on February 28 in a Jolly Ice Parlor branch in Hollywood, Florida. In the video, you can see one of the toddlers silently questioning “Ms. Rachel” as well as her parents, immediately noticing something was off with her. The video even claims some parents and toddlers were disappointed with the event and felt “scammed” as many expected the real Ms. Rachel to appear.
To be fair to the impersonator and the ice cream parlor, they did put an “Impersonator” disclaimer in the poster, though the disclaimer text was smaller. Still, problems and misunderstandings arose with how they used an actual image of the real Ms. Rachel in the poster. Tickets to the event also allegedly cost around $25 according to witnesses, though meeting and photos with “Ms. Rachel” were free.
Two days after the event, the Ms. Rachel impersonator turned up in a police report where she was apparently arrested for retail theft on a $2,500 bail. It’s worth noting, however, that this arrest was unrelated to the meet and greet event, though many thought it was a rather ridiculous coincidence.
People Online are Defending the Impersonator
While the Ms. Rachel impersonator’s retail theft is a different matter, a lot of commenters and viewers online thought that the parental outrage or perhaps even the toddler disappointment was unjustified. As one commenter says it, “If it said impersonator on the flyer what ppl mad for?” with another replying, “They mad at themselves but won’t admit it.”
Others have pointed out just how absurd this particular string of events is, and that’s saying something for Florida, “y’all actually lined up for a fake Ms. Rachel 😭and now she’s Ms. Criminal ? Florida is really out here writing plots for TikTok 👀.” The kids certainly could tell that the impersonator was also not the real Ms. Rachel, as pointed out by certain commenters on Facebook, “NO THEY DIDN’T!! My grandson would have wrecked shop!!,” with another similar sentiment, “This is nuts. That baby in the rainbow onesie knew though lmao.”
Thankfully, it appears no kids (or parents) had a violent reaction during the event, and some people online even believed that it was debatably unfair for parents to expect the real Ms. Rachel to appear. “This is funny 😂 But from the fee being charged they should have known they won’t be meeting the real Ms Rachel.”
