Aly Raisman to the rescue after holiday party prank
Aly Raisman saved the holidays for a fan who opened a gag gift that involved the two-time Olympic gymnast.
Murphy Siegel of Boston, Massachusetts, was on the receiving end of the Secret Santa present, a "signed" poster of Raisman, at his office party Wednesday.
The 24-year-old was at first excited to get the poster, until he realized it was all a sham orchestrated by his colleagues.
"It was written in marker and looked like a signature," Siegel, an account coordinator at integrated marketing and PR firm The Belfort Group told "Good Morning America." "Then I read the rest of the note. It said, 'To my future husband. Love, Aly Raisman. I said, 'Oh, this is a good prank.'"
Siegel, a Jewish man, said his adoration for Raisman began when he was watching the 2012 Summer Olympics and she performed her floor routine to the Jewish folk song "Hava Nagila."
"From there, it was a running joke -- she was my celebrity crush," Siegel said. "I admire her, too, everything she's done off the gymnastics floor. She's leading what it looks like to be an athlete today and what it means to represent the country."
Siegel said his colleagues are aware of his love for Raisman, which is why the poster idea was born.
After he opened the gag gift, Siegel tweeted to Raisman a photo of himself that captured his obvious disappointment.
"My coworker just gave me a 'signed' photo of @Aly_Raisman for secret santa and I discovered he actually signed it just to see my reaction... I was (am) sad," he wrote.
Within a few hours, Raisman replied to Siegel's tweet. The 25-year-old star shared a contact email and offered to send him a new gift.
"I was thinking, 'She has to find it funny' and low and behold, my phone blew up," Siegel said. "I don't have a big Twitter following. I'm not quite sure what made her point me out."
Siegel said he took Raisman up on her offer and sent an email. He got a reply and should be a receiving something in the mail from Raisman on Monday, he added.
Siegel said his dream is to have a conversation with Raisman over coffee someday.
