Mother of Tased teen offers apology

Scott Zeigler was watching the Phillies when he heard the announcer say at the top of the eighth inning that "there's a cat out on the field."

"I thought it was some kind of animal," Zeigler said.

But it wasn't. It was his stepson.

Steve Consalvi, 17, got well more than his 15 minutes of fame when he dashed onto right field Monday night, darting through the outfield until he was felled by a policeman's Taser gun.

Tuesday afternoon, Consalvi's mother and stepfather stood on their front porch on an otherwise sunny and peaceful afternoon, patiently taking questions from reporters about Consalvi's mystifying behavior, which ended with charges of defiant trespass, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct.

"I'm publicly apologizing for my son," said a chagrined Amy Zeigler, who kept Steve inside and away from reporters even as her son's claim to fame soared. His story went viral; by Tuesday evening, 350,000 people had viewed videos of the Tasering on YouTube. On Philly.com alone, the stories and videos earned the site nearly 673,000 page views as of early Tuesday night. On Facebook, a new page was dubbed "Steve Consalvi Is a Hero."

The family's ordeal began before Steve made his move, when he called his father, Wayne, to ask his permission to run onto the field.

"He said, 'Dad, can I run on the field?' I said, 'I don't think you should, son,' " reported Consalvi, who lives in Upper Pottsgrove.

At home that night in Gilbertsville, the Zeiglers - avid Phillies fans - were watching when Scott realized it was a person who was running in the outfield.

"I was like, who the hell is that idiot out there?" said Scott, an engineer with Lockheed Martin.

He found out at 9:45 p.m., when the family was called and told to come to the Methodist Hospital emergency room to sign out their son - so he could be booked. When a person is hit with a Taser, police policy requires the person to be taken to a hospital to be checked.

"I was stunned," said his mother, who said she had not slept all night and was showing the strain Tuesday afternoon.

Her first concern, she said, was whether her son was all right. For his stepfather, "My first concern was what I was going to do to him when I lay my hands on him."

The couple, who have been married 13 years, drove to the emergency room and found Steve in handcuffs.

"He looked embarrassed," Amy Zeigler said. He told her, "I wasn't thinking. It was wrong."

Steve is a good kid, said his mother. He gets good grades at Boyertown High and has been accepted at Penn State-Berks next year. He doesn't get into trouble, and he wasn't drinking or taking drugs.

"That's what makes it even more bizarre," she said. He was perfectly sober. The wacky move, she said, was completely out of character, though he is crazy for the Phillies.

"He's a clown, but he's got enough common sense to not do something so completely stupid," his stepfather said.

"It was dumb. Absolutely dumb," his mother said.

He will write a letter of apology to the Phillies, she said. The couple said they had not decided what punishment to mete out at home, but for now he'd be under "house arrest."

Thankfully, said his mother, Steve appears to be unhurt from his adventures. Still, she was upset to see her son Tasered over and over again on video on Tuesday.

"Both of us have the same feeling that at first blush, it seems excessive," Scott Zeigler said.

They are not sure whether they'll take any action.

At day's end, she found the "Steve Consalvi Is a Hero" Facebook page. She sighed.

"You're no hero," she told him.