Lincoln Financial Field, home to the Philadelphia Eagles, had a few unwanted visitors last night. No, the New York Giants did not make an unscheduled appearance. Five undergrads from Villanova University broke in and stole a seat: Section 108, Row 30, Seat 1, to be exact.

While working their mischief about 3 a.m., they were noticed on
surveillance cameras by stadium security, who called police and tried
to apprehend the intruders, according to Lt. David Bellamy of South
Detectives.

Although the young men ran, guards nabbed one and police four more, while several others apparently escaped, Bellamy said.

Their intentions were not clear, but some commenters on the Philly.com article speculated that it could have been part of a fraternity prank.

This stadium break-in problem is not isolated in Philly. In the past, Beaver Stadium has been the site of many a break-in attempt. One time in particular occurred on October 15th, 1994, following a huge away football win over Michigan.

According to the Collegian,

The final gun for the Penn State-Michigan game became a starter’s
pistol for the race of thousands of people to converge upon the
hometown mecca of college football — Beaver Stadium.

“As soon as the last second ticked off, everyone started running in the
streets,” said Steve Tuteur (sophomore-business). “It’s probably the
greatest thing I’ve ever seen up here. They stopped traffic, and
everyone just started screaming, ‘Goal post! Goal post!’ ”

In an attempt to divert fans from scaling the stadium fences, the
University donated two goal posts, which were placed outside the
stadium at the south end. But those decoys did not fool the crazed fans
who wanted to bring down the real thing, celebrating Penn State’s 31-24
victory.

Hundreds of students broke into the stadium and attempted to take the goalposts down. They failed, and instead settled for pieces of turf from the field and Mace in their eyes. Interestingly enough, only 18 people were charged in the incident.

As a result of this event and others after it, Beaver Stadium is now notoriously well protected from trespassers. Maybe the Linc should take a page out of their book.

[Philly.com via Broad&Cecil]