Fox to give duped Panthers fan a truck

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CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Fox Sports has decided to compensate a Carolina Panthers fan tricked into thinking he had won a free vehicle by making good on the joke and giving him a truck.

David Hill, Fox Sports chairman and chief executive officer, told the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer that he plans to present Greg "Catman" Good with a new Ford F-150 truck.

Good, a familiar sight at Panthers' games with his blue wig and cape, was told during a nationally televised game Aug. 24 between the Panthers and the Miami Dolphins that he would be getting a car. Sideline reporter Tony Siragusa did give him a car -- a toy.

"It was a lack of judgment on my people's part," Hill said. "I take the reputation of Fox Sports very seriously, and I don't want it to be sullied. Once I heard about the story -- and in all my years doing this I've never dealt with anything quite like this one -- I believed something needed to be done quickly and unilaterally here."

He said that the person who set up the practical joke would be disciplined but "no one would be left hanging from the gallows."