The saga of the barefoot runner, a local Facebook group, and some acorns

2025-04-27 19:53:23admin

Local Facebook really is something else. Here's the saga of the barefoot runner and "I Love NE Minneapolis." You might want to sit down for this.

An irate "competitive barefoot runner" took to his neighborhood Facebook group to complain about the abundance of acorns littering the sidewalks.

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"This makes my training sessions very difficult," he posted. "So this is just a friendly reminder to please keep your sidewalks clear of any acorns or other debris that might injure those whom are active members of the barefoot running community, including myself."

Then he passive aggressively dropped the possibility of filing a complaint to the city, before closing with a chipper "Peace and Love!"

Tweet may have been deleted

As you can imagine, people couldn't possibly take the post seriously.

Turns out the whole thing as just some really good trolling. According to BuzzFeed, Eric Curtis, the man behind the posts, was just trolling his neighbors -- and the media. He was even quoted in the Washington Post.

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"If only there were something you could put on your feet to protect acorns and other debris," one Minneapolis resident commented.

Someone suggested running with a leaf blower. Another suggested running with squirrels. Many straight up refused to sweep their sidewalks so that one person could run.

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He posted a screenshot of his complaint and said that although he wanted to "resolve this in a neighborly fashion," and that the "threatening and hostile nature" of fellow group members pushed him over the edge.

"Unfortunately you have all forced my hand," he responded, like a medieval king on a power trip.

In the screenshot of the code violation report he wrote, "poorly maintained sidewalks littered with acorns, as well as cyber-bullyingand threats from the community."

Tweet may have been deleted

As @alex_cono -- the hero who managed to grab all of these screenshots -- noted, the OP has a history of passive aggressive neighborhood posts. In a previous post, he referred to his significant other as his "soul partner" and asked if anyone else knew of "SERIOUS" unicycling communities.

Despite this all being just a troll, knowing the shenanigans and spats that go down on Nextdoor, this barefoot runner was not even that extreme.

UPDATE: Oct. 11, 2018, 12:17 a.m. EDT Updated with a report from BuzzFeed stating the whole thing was a hoax.

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