HOUSTON — Some Atlanta Falcons fans are upset after they paid their money for a bus trip to Houston, but the bus never showed up. Fans were even more upset when the woman who organized the trip showed up in Houston.
Carolyn Freeman is known as the Bird Lady. She is the unofficial mascot of the Falcons.
She said she is not the bad person people are making her out to be.
"I know I'm a good person. People love me. Even though people try and turn on me and be mad right now," Freeman told Channel 2's Tom Jones.
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Falcons fans are turning on her because many of them believe she turned on them. Freeman organized a bus trip from Atlanta to Houston for Falcons fans.
Some people signed up for packages that included event tickets and hotel rooms. When fans showed up Wednesday to head to Houston, there was no bus, no tickets and no hotel rooms. Freeman says it wasn't her fault.
"I got lied to and I got scammed," she said, near tears.
Freeman said a friend told her about a man who wanted her to be the face of the bus trip. Her face is on the flyer.
But she says fans paid him for the trip--through his website--and she had nothing to do with the money.
Freeman said now he won't return her calls.
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Jones tried to call him but got no answer. We are not naming him because he hasn't been charged.
Fans became incensed when they saw video of Freeman on a plane to Houston,
She knew that didn't sit well.
"I said, 'watch and see. As soon as somebody see me on this plane they gonna turn on me.' Everybody love me before I got on that plane, but when I got on that plane everybody hated me," she said.
So now she is in Houston trying to find a way to get fans here. She says she has two buses and is trying to find hotels.
Jones asked her what has she learned. "Check the facts. You got to check everybody because everybody is not an honest person," she said.
Freeman says she doesn't have a hotel to stay in because the one promised to her was never booked.