A beloved reporter for Fox 29 in Philadelphia was brutally assaulted over the weekend, as he was sucker punched at a bar as part of a TikTok challenge.
Fox Reporter Attacked
THANK YOU ALL for the messages, texts, phone calls and concerns. LIVE from Margate this morning! pic.twitter.com/aAIXrDw08l
— Bob Kelly (@BobKellyFOX29) August 1, 2023
NJ.com reported that traffic reporter Bob Kelly returned to air on Tuesday morning with a visibly swollen left eye. This came after he was attacked on Sunday night while he was at a party at the Oar House Pub on the Jersey Shore, where a man filming an apparent TikTok challenge poured beer on him before punching him in the face.
“I just want to say first of all thank you so much for all of the messages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, cell phone texting, all concerned about me,” Kelly said. “I’m OK, I’m here.”
“It was a frightening, disturbing event that was apparently incited by this TikTok challenge similar to what you saw happen to Cardi B with the water being thrown,” he continued. “It’s under investigation and I’m just going to leave it at that but I hope this can bring some light to this craziness that is out there and put a stop to it.”
Good Morning from Margate. LIVE from The Other Lucy Beach Grill. @theotherlucymargate pic.twitter.com/9Vg9UTDoaF
— Bob Kelly (@BobKellyFOX29) August 1, 2023
Related: TikTok Boat Jumping Challenge Kills Four As Officials Sound The Alarm
Cardi B Incident
This was an apparent reference to an incident that occurred on Saturday night, when the rapper Cardi B had water poured on her by a female audience member while performing in Las Vegas. Cardi B responded by throwing her microphone at the unnamed woman in a video that has since gone viral.
Cardi B gets water thrown on her by a fan pic.twitter.com/5M7uEUE8oK
— KeyMusicHQ2.0 (@keyymusichq) July 30, 2023
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Kelly was emceeing the party at the Oar House Pub in Sea Isle City when a young man approached him and filmed himself pouring beer on the seasoned reporter’s head and shoulder.
When Kelly tried to swat the beer away, the young man sucker punched him while continuing to film the altercation. Police have not revealed if any arrests have been made in connection to this incident.
Kelly was rushed to Cape Regional Medical Center, where he was treated for a period time, but he was not found to have serious injuries. He reportedly typically takes Monday off, and did not need any further recovery time before returning to work on Tuesday.
Older than the Statue of Liberty, going for a tour inside Lucy, the elephant coming up next pic.twitter.com/jJ8xTPCYgn
— Bob Kelly (@BobKellyFOX29) August 1, 2023
Kelly’s History
Kelly has been a traffic reporter for Fox 29 since 2014, and he’s become something of a fixture up and down the Shore. He previously spent thirteen years working for CBS3 as a traffic reporter, turning to that field after a career as a DJ didn’t pan out for him.
“I got started at 102.9 MGK and worked up and down the dial at all the hot stations,” Kelly told South Jersey Magazine in 2018. “But the music industry was starting to change.”
“Fewer DJs were actually live on the radio; everything was prerecorded,” he continued. “My agent said to me, ‘Traffic is going to be huge. What if you DJ that?’ Traffic is live; it’ll always be live, you can’t prerecord it. So instead of talking up the Rolling Stones, I decided to DJ the traffic.”
Grab the Popcorn and see ya on TV at 6:30. pic.twitter.com/4qtQin3efh
— Bob Kelly (@BobKellyFOX29) July 27, 2023
Sadly, these kinds of incidents of random acts of violence appear to be getting more and more common in this country these days. We can only hope that whoever did this to Kelly is apprehended as soon as possible so that he can be held responsible for this heinous attack.
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