Ridiculous Delco Battle Erupts Over a Kid on a Bike
But this isn't just any kid on a bike. Meet 11-year-old Oneway Lilman.
The parents of the 11-year-old Havertown biker known as Oneway Lilman recently put up this “My Neighbor Is a Karen” sign on their Delco lawn. (photo via Facebook)
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Ridiculous Delco Battle Erupts Over a Kid on a Bike
“These fucking people are something else,” says West Philly native Alexander Santacroce, who now lives with his wife and four kids in a quiet residential section of Havertown. “It’s just amazing.”
The “people” Santacroce is referring to are the same people he’s targeting with a newly installed sign on his lawn. It reads: “My Neighbor Is a Karen.” But make that neighbors, plural.
The controversy surrounds Santacroce’s 11-year-old son, Alex, who likes to ride his bike, e-bikes and Razor scooters around Havertown. Okay, maybe that’s putting it mildly. Alex is a sponsored biker, a pre-teen “bike life” influencer, and he’s everywhere.
In the bike-life world, he’s known as “Oneway Lilman.” And Lilman has caught the attention of Meek Mill, and appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show and various local news programs. His YouTube channel has 1.3 million subscribers, and another 696,000 people follow him on Instagram.
He’s the kind of kid who has Louis Vuitton sending him bike helmets and promoters paying him to show off his moves in Florida and California on a fairly regular basis. He gets invited to events like the Teen Lounge Kickoff Party at New York Fashion Week:
Delco biker Oneway Lilman attends the Teen Lounge NYFW Kickoff Party in February (Getty Images)
The problem, according to some Havertown residents, is that the boy rides his various bikes and scooters all over his neighborhood and out into other nearby Delco neighborhoods. And some neighbors don’t take too kindly to his antics. Popping wheelies. Zipping around on sidewalks. You know, doing the kinds of things that an 11-year-old kid with a bike will tend to do.
In the past several months, posts about Lilman, some of his riding pals, and some other kids who may or may not have any connection to him have appeared in various neighborhood social media groups. According to Santacroce, one commenter referred to Oneway Lilman and his friends as “feral animals.” Reactions to the handwringing have ranged from folks joining in on the outrage to others asking what all the fuss is about. (One resident joked that popping wheelies in the street is definitely a gateway to drug abuse.)
As you might expect, some of these outraged neighbors have called the cops.
Joe Hagan, deputy chief of police in Haverford Township, says the department has received numerous calls about bikers and that the cops have responded to at least six incidents involving Oneway Lilman specifically. Hagan explains that some of the biking does, in fact, amount to illegal activity. Santacroce says his household has received at least two citations from the police department, including one just the other day, for operating a vehicle — any type of bike or scooter is technically considered a vehicle — illegally. And as soon as he received this latest citation, the “Karen” sign went up on his front lawn.
Santacroce claims that all of his son’s biking activities in Havertown have involved regular, pedaled bikes — like BMX bikes — as well as e-bikes and electric scooters. But Hagan says some of the reports about Oneway Lilman have included motorized dirt bikes, which Santacroce says they do own.
It’s not just the cops that have gotten involved, according to Santacroce. He alleges that one of his neighbors called the local Child and Youth Services (CYS) department because Lilman was riding his bike in his underwear. “Oh my God, this biker is unclothed and neglected!” Santacroce imagines the resident told CYS. “What they didn’t know is that my son had a boxer-briefs sponsor. They are basically the same as shorts. So we had him outside shooting a video for the brand.”
I asked Santacroce why he thought the neighbors were so concerned about all this.
“One of these cops once told me that the community doesn’t like it because when he’s out there in parking lots at shopping centers, it brings in kids from other townships and West Philly,” Santacroce responded. “He’s well-known, and people want to see him.”
Hagan laughed at that suggestion: “The son is just not famous. … We’re talking maybe 10 kids will come see him do stunts.” As far as Hagan is concerned, he says he doesn’t have a problem with the kids riding bikes. He just wants them to do so safely and not on busy main roads or sidewalks.
“What I’m actually concerned about is having to show up at somebody’s house to tell them that their kid got killed while doing stupid things on a bike,” Hagan says. “We take it seriously because of that. And because the people who move here do so because they want to live in a quiet neighborhood. Listen, the kid is good. The kid has talent. But he can’t just show off his talent in the middle of the street.”
Local Talent
It sure is nice when the local talent that I get to feature in this section is, well, us. You may remember that Philly Mag just won the coveted National Magazine Award for our fabulous cover story about hoagies. (FYI: There are lots of awards out there. But winning a National Magazine Award in particular is a really big deal.)
Well, I am now thrilled to tell you that we were just nominated for two James Beard media awards: one for that same hoagie cover story, and one for Jason Sheehan’s fascinating profile of Alexandra Holt and her restaurant Roxanne. Also nominated: the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, and other prestigious publications. Good company to be in! Now go eat a hoagie to celebrate. We’ll help you pick.
And in other local-talent news, congrats to Main Line political commentator Michael Smerconish, who is celebrating 10 years at CNN. You can read my exclusive interview with him here. He may be one of the few people I know who are huge fans of Reagan and Rizzo but also Obama.
By the Numbers
5: KYW Newsradio employees who just lost their jobs thanks to the financial turmoil of station owner Audacy. One of the cuts was reportedly longtime KYW reporter Hadas Kuznits. Sad to see her go. But I will also say this: I can only get a KYW radio signal in my car one-10th of the times that I try. Not sure what’s going on there.
$20 million: Amount a former Atlantic City casino owner is suing for over the rights to Miss America. The guy doing the suing is the former owner of Revel, otherwise known as one of the biggest casino failures in Atlantic City history.
$190,000: Cash that a man is accused of stealing from the back seat of a Tesla outside a Bensalem gas station on Monday. Now, I know the obvious question is: Why would somebody have $190,000 in cash in their car? Apparently, the victim services all those annoying “skill-based” gambling machines that have popped up in lots of bars, bodegas and gas stations throughout the region.
And From the Whoa-Was-Not-Expecting-That! Sports Desk …
The fifth game in the Sixers’ down-3-1 playoff series with the Knicks was last night, and there had been rumors about Joel Embiid all day — he skipped the morning shoot-around and was reported to be suffering a migraine. He looked like bloody hell reporting to Madison Square Garden.
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1785432905868541952
For all the shit Tobias Harris has had thrown at him this season, he scored our first points — a three. It helped that neither team was hitting any shots; five minutes in, the score was still 5-0. The Knicks soon regained their wits. Still, with help from an 8-0 run, we were up 26-17 at the close of the first quarter. Paul Reed spelled Embiid at the end and stayed in for the second, and the Knicks tied it at 28-28 three minutes in. Back came Embiid, but New York grabbed the lead with a 19-2 run. Yikes. At the half: 49-43 Knicks.
In the third, the Sixers tied it back up in the opening minutes, then took the lead, 53-51, on a 10-2 run. After that, it was seesaw time through the quarter’s close: 70-69 Knicks. Deep breath, Philly. New York was out front on a 13-2 run with five minutes to go in the game as Embiid sat for a spell, but the Sixers refused to say die; Maxey was having a monster night. But then we were down six with 30 seconds to go. It seemed over. Then Maxey went on an impossible 7-1 run in the final half minute to force overtime!
TYRESE MAXEY. THREE-POINTER TO TIE THE GAME IN THE FINAL SECONDS WITH THE SEASON ON THE LINE
TOM MCGINNIS ON THE CALL pic.twitter.com/ZHAAPbMuzw
— Nick Piccone (@_piccone) May 1, 2024
The Garden was real, real quiet. The Sixers were not, alas, a team made for overtime — not this season. Well. It was a good run, guys — most of it, anyway. Oh, wait. Hold on, hold on!
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1785493664476647771
And they did! WE WIN IN OVERTIME, 112-106! Holy f’ing shit! Rematch in Philly on Thursday — be there!
How’d the Phillies Do?
Well, they didn’t score in the first inning in their rematch against the Angels, but in the second, after Nick Castellanos singled and Bryson Stott walked, Kyle Schwarber singled to give us the 3-0 lead ahead of pitcher Tyler Anderson. Zach Neto led off L.A.’s fourth with a solo homer off starter Spencer Turnbull to make it 3-1. That was pretty much it until Turnbull gave up a single in the sixth and came out for Yunior Marte, and that’s when things went all to hell; he gave up a fielder’s choice, a homer, a double and a single, and just like that, it was 5-3 Angels.
In the seventh, off reliever Matt Moore, Trea Turner singled with one out and then stole second, and Alec Bohm singled him home: 4-5. In the ninth, a Castellanos homer off Carlos Estévez tied it, and a Stott double and Johan Rojas homer (!) gave us a 7-5 lead. Could Jeff Hoffman hold onto it? He could! Great comeback win on a great night (mostly — read on) for Philly sports fans. One more Angels match, this afternoon at 4:07.
Any Doop News?
More like Poop News. The Union took up their suspended-because-of-sodden-field March 9th game against the Seattle Sounders at home in Chester last night, and it did not go well. They took the continuation up at the six-minute mark, and Seattle scored 13 minutes in, 22 minutes in, and again, on a PK, in the 37th, to put the Union down 3-0 in the first half. WTF. In the second half, goals two minutes apart by Jack McGlynn and Dániel Gazdag evened it up a bit, but the lead was too much, and that was the final: 3-2 Seattle. Like I said, Poop.
All Philly Today sports coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.
