Whoops! A courtside selfie gone wrong has turned into a successful charitable gesture for the Los Angeles Police Foundation thanks to Rihanna.
After donning an LAPD wristband at the request of Los Angeles Police Commissioner Steve Soboroff, the singer was snapping a selfie with him when she dropped and cracked his phone. Two days later, Soboroff saw Rihanna courtside again and told her of his plans to auction the phone to raise money for the Los Angeles Police Department. Rihanna signed the back of his phone, “Sorry! I (heart) LAPD. Rihanna.”
In the days since, Rihanna tweeted her apology out to her 35 million Twitter followers and pledged $25,000 to the Los Angeles Police Foundation. Her gift was then generously matched by Patti and Steve Soboroff. In addition, Soboroff placed the autographed phone on eBay where bidding started at $250. Hopes of raising at least $10,000 were wildly surpassed when the last of 116 bids came in at $66,500. That bidder, as it turns out, was not qualified, and the bid price was quickly matched by a private donor who required anonymity. Half of the proceeds will go to the Los Angeles Police Foundation for the LAPD Cadets and the other half will go to the Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation to support the families of fallen officers.
Soboroff stated, "On behalf of the Cadets and the Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation, I am delighted that Rihanna’s wonderful gesture of donating $25,000 plus her authorizing the sale of the “selfie phone” resulted in the anonymous buyer turning around and donating the world’s most famous selfie phone to The GRAMMY Museum for display to the public!"
“It’s not often that we are able to obtain an artifact so quickly after it makes headlines,” said Rita George, deputy executive director of The GRAMMY Museum. “We’re excited to welcome this interesting piece of pop culture into our permanent collection here at The GRAMMY Museum and we are even more excited to show our support for the Los Angeles Police Department and the great work that they do.”
“I am thrilled to acknowledge and thank the donors for their generous contributions totaling $116,500 for the LAPD Cadet Program and the families of fallen/wounded officers,” said Cecilia Glassman, executive director of the Los Angeles Police Foundation.
Source: PR Newswire
