Obama Streaker Juan Rodriguez Gets Only Some of $1 Million Prize
Oct. 14, 2010— -- The New York man who ran naked through an Obama rally last weekend in hopes of nabbing a $1 million reward from a billionaire Internet mogul, will have a year's worth of rent and his sister's hospital bills paid for, after reportedly admitting he didn't get close enough to the president to earn the jackpot.
Juan Rodriguez, 24, told billionaire Alki David that he would try again to fulfill all of the requirements of the mogul's Internet dare, according to a statement issued this morning by David's team, this time with another undisclosed head of state.
"Despite the failed attempt," the statement read, David has agreed to pay not only for the rent and hospital bills, but give Rodriguez an undisclosed amount of cash.
"After reviewing the footage of Juan Rodriguez's attempt to complete the Battlecam.com Million Dollar Challenge, I spoke with Mr. Rodriguez directly. Mr. Rodriguez agreed that he was not able to complete all the criteria of the challenge," David said in his statement.
"But he came so very close, and his personal story about why he decided to take such a risk for his family, moved me to provide him with a generous consolation prize."
David's spokesman declined to provide an total figure for how much David will pay Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was immediately arrested at the Philadelphia rally Sunday and charged with indecent exposure, open lewdness and disorderly conduct. He told reporters outside the jail after posting bond, that he took the dare to provide for his three children and pay his sister's surgery costs.
Alki David, the billionaire who promised the hefty sum to anyone who would run naked within sight and earshot of the president, took four days to decide and announce whether he would pay up.
His spokesman told ABC News Tuesday that David's team was reviewing Rodriguez's naked moment in the spotlight from several different camera angles "to see if he was in eyesight or ear shot" of the president.
Though Rodriguez claimed his cheeky sprint for cash got him within 10 feet of the president -- a distance that would have likely alarmed the Secret Service – David said via his statement that Rodriguez eventually admitted that Obama did not see him.
Rodriguez was also required to shout the name of David's video-sharing and broadcasting Web site, Battlecam.com, six times as he streaked.
"I didn't do anything that hurt anybody," the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted Rodriguez as saying outside the jail. "My family needs the money."
