A quarter-century prank involving a stolen football shirt has finally been revealed, and the man behind it wanted to embarrass his friend by sending the top around the world through strangers’ photos. Kevin Hill, now 47 and living in Dunfermline, Fife, lost his prized Ian Wright Celtic jersey in 2001 after a flat-warming party in Edinburgh. He never suspected it would resurface in Brazil, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and the United States.
The story begins in Aberdeen, where Kevin grew up as a Celtic fan with a thick skin. His father took him to games in Glasgow, and his parents bought him the latest strips every season, starting when he was five. As much as he loved Celtic, his first footballing hero was Ian Wright, the Arsenal legend who signed for Parkhead in 1999.
The Strip’s Story
Wright’s stint at Celtic was brief, lasting just eight appearances and yielding three goals. But Kevin’s affection endured. The green-and-white hooped jersey became his go-to match day uniform, featuring Wright’s name but no number on the back.
The reason it doesn’t have a number on the back was because he hadn’t actually signed yet and so we didn’t know his number when I got it.
The shirt disappeared after the move to Edinburgh. Kevin assumed someone had taken it at the party, but he never identified the culprit. Over time, his anger faded, and he forgot about it. Then, years later, an email arrived from an account he didn’t recognise.
The Email Trail
The message began: “Hi Kevin, remember me? Yes that’s right, it’s your Ian Wright Celtic strip.” It continued: “I hope you aren’t mad with me but I decided to embark on a journey of discovery.”
When Kevin opened the attached photograph, it showed a woman on the London Eye holding up the top. He was mega confused. Running through his mind was, who has done this? Bravo, it’s a really good prank.
More emails followed. One showed the shirt in Barcelona. Then came Turkey, Italy, and South America. Christ the Redeemer in Brazil. Venezuela. Puerto Rico. Back up to the USA.
As 2008 gave way to 2009, the messages kept arriving until the email trail went cold. Kevin poured over clues, wondering how the sender kept it going.
Friends on the Hunt
It wasn’t one of his friends globetrotting. The strip was being handed on to someone else, with each photo featuring a different person. The accomplices were random strangers asked to pose with the top while traveling.
“I was just asking whoever happened to be standing there could you just hold this strip up and I’ll take a photograph,” Kris Robertson explains.
Kris, 48, says he had to take his time. Benicassim music festival was the first stop, but he couldn’t send a photo from there because Kevin knew he was there. So he created delays between locations and emails.
At one point, Kevin emailed back saying he thought he’d worked out who it was. Kris knew he hadn’t, and the prank continued.
The Wedding Reveal
The mystery occupied a corner of Kevin’s mind for another decade. He told everyone about the adventures of “Wrighty,” even his fiancé Cheryl. Little did he know she was part of the plan.
At the wedding reception in late August, Kevin sat at a table with his childhood friends from Aberdeen. They all started laughing as one of them handed him a parcel.
“When I opened it, I could see it was a Celtic top but then very quickly I saw the white letters of Wright,” Kevin says. “I knew immediately and I just couldn’t believe it.”
Inside the parcel was a photobook titled “Wrighty on Tour: 25 years of adventures around the globe.” It was the best present he could have ever been given.
“And the fact that they kept it going that long just shows how good a friendship group I’ve got.”
The Revenge Plan
The prank was revenge for a previous email hijacking. Kevin had used Kris’s email account to embarrass him at work. Kris, smiling, admits it.
“It was revenge,” he says.
The idea came from the 2001 film Amelie, in which the main character steals her dad’s garden gnome and sends it around the world with postcards of exotic locations. Kris thought the same approach would work with a football strip.
The first stage involved another school friend stealing the shirt at Kevin’s flat-warming party. The next stage required a fake email address and finding random accomplices while on his travels.
Kris says the delays were deliberate. “If I’d sent him a photo from there he would have sussed me straight away because he knew I was there. So I had to make sure there was quite a long delay between going places and then sending the emails.”
| Action | Detail |
|---|---|
| Theft | Another school friend stole the shirt at the flat-warming party |
| Email setup | Kris set up a fake address and asked strangers to pose with the shirt |
| Delay | Kris waited between locations and emails to avoid detection |
| Reveal | The shirt and photobook appeared at the wedding reception |
The Final Word
The prank spanned 25 years, from 2001 onward. Kevin’s friends kept the shirt moving across continents, photographing it in front of landmarks and sending the images to him. The reveal at the wedding reception was the climax of a scheme that had consumed his mind for decades.
“It was the best present I could have ever been given,” Kevin says.
“And the fact that they kept it going that long just shows how good a friendship group I’ve got.”
The story is a reminder that friends will go to great lengths to embarrass each other.
Source material: “From Aberdeen to Argentina: How my stolen Ian Wright football top went round the world,” Yahoo Sports.
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