The Story of Helmet Man from the perspective of The Airbrush Shoppe, Etc.
In 1998, we began our first year airbrushing Chiefs fans at Sports Nutz of Kansas City. We met a lot of crazy people that year, most of whom we've kept through the years as fans, customers and friends. Our first show with Sports Nutz was Red Friday, which was simulcast live by one of the local radio stations from the Sports Nutz. It was certainly cramped quarters, as there were a ton of people who showed up to help celebrate opening weekend with the Chiefs at home. The radio station was planning to auction off a pair of Chief's season tickets for charity, which we never expected to end the way it did. There were several bidders, but they mostly fizzled out after the $5000.00 mark. Two guys were left; one older gent who looked like he was really chomping at the bit and one 40-ish guy with a thick accent. We watched in awe as the bids rose several more thousand dollars, the cheers rising frantically with each bump up. The auction ended with a winning $18,000 bid cast out into the crowd like a penalty flag onto a field. The 40-ish guy won those tickets with a most dramatic display. Over the next few game days, we noticed him around a lot, joking with the radio personalities and being involved with everyone. It didn't take long for our unique service to catch his eye and we sprung some creative conversation between us about a costume he wanted to put together. He introduced himself as Edgar Sanchez, and we thought at that time that he not only didn't look like a "Sanchez", but his dialect didn't sound like a "Sanchez", either. We shrugged it off and cooked up quite a paint job for his new character. He was to be "Helmet Man" and we were going to paint a Chiefs helmet on his bald melon. He donned pads, a jersey, breeches, shoes, his all-time famous drums, and even had one of his Chiefs friends donate a pair of real, player socks to him. The costume was fun and he added energy enough to give the cheerleaders a run for their money!
For the next several years, we refined his costume and came to find a friendship with this man. We watched as he grew a chain of successful businesses around KC (As Seen On TV Stores), found a wife and had an adorable baby girl. His wedding was nothing short of spectacular, a completely huge hoopla- broadcast over the same radio show where we first saw him. Not long after his radio show wedding, he came to us in tears. There was something he needed to talk about and he didn't know who else to talk to. Of course, being the squishy folks we are, we asked him to feel welcome to talk with us. He spilled his guts about things we really wished we hadn't heard, by the time he was finished. He said that his real name was Wahed Moharem, not Edgar Sanchez, and that he was really Arabic, not Hispanic. His tale spun into an abyss of assasination, terrorism, murder, CIA, FBI, and the World Trade Center. He said that he had been in the witness protection program since the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing and that he had told his new wife this story. In telling his new wife, his protection program had been revolked. We totally sypathized with him, trying to make him feel better, but after he left we all shook in our boots for weeks. From that point forward, Edgar's life began to slide.
His story goes like this, to our best recollection: Edgar was born to Egyptian Diplomats (Prime Minister, so he said). His father was not a very compassionate man, especially when it came to Edgar. There were many times Edgar was beaten to a pulp, either by his father or by his father's "assistants". The last beating came when Edgar wanted to wash his own car, instead of having the servants do it for him. His father flew into a rage, having his goons beat Edgar into a bloody pool of goo. His mother feared after this incident that the next time could be fatal to her son, so she sent him to Italy. There, he studied art in Rome (I think it was Rome) for several years, until he recieved word that his father had been killed during the Anwar Sadaat assasination. Edgar soon found himself in the US, visiting friends in Jersey, where he decided to stay. He opened a thriving limousine service out of Jersey, where he also worshipped in his traditional Muslim faith. During those Jersey years, Edgar befriended many of his fellow Muslims, often living with them and hiring some to work for his limo business. One of his employees came to him one day, asking to borrow one of the company vans for some personal errands. Edgar declined, but offered to rent the man a van. Hence, he called the local moving truck rental company and rented the man a box truck. The man showed up later, terribly distraught, and told Edgar that he had something he needed to tell him. Edgar knew it was bad, but he found out that the same box truck he had just rented for this man was used to blow a big hole in the World Trade Center. Edgar called the authorities, who in turn, whisked him away into the Witness Protection Program. According to Edgar, it was his testimony that landed the guilty parties for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing into prison, but it also lost him his business and his new life on the East Coast.
To be honest, we mulled this over carefully for the next little while, not wanting to do the wrong thing. I mean, in our opinion, if Edgar was telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth, he was a true American Hero and we wanted to support him. On the other hand, if he wasn't telling the whole truth, he could be the most dangerous person we had ever known. Then, 9-11 came crashing down on all of us. Edgar and his new wife starting fighting a lot, often in big, dramatic, public displays and usually with below-the-belt tactics. Since Edgar was no longer in the Witness Protection Program, his estranged wife went to the press with his whole, sorted story. Edgar also went to the press with his side. We were really caught between a rock and a hard place, both personally and with our business, not to mention that we were grieving deeply for the acts of terrorism on our Country. Both Edgar and his soon-to-be-ex-wife drifted away from us. Edgar was acting strangely, very moody and we heard many ugly stories about his bad behavior. In 2003, our company won the contract for airbrush face painting at Arrowhead Stadium. Edgar showed up at the first home pre-game, ready to be airbrushed in all of his Helmet Man glory. We obliged and sent him on his way. He went in, beating his drums and riling the crowds as usual, when he was escorted back out of the stadium and arrested. He was told not to return to the stadium. He wasn't welcome. Arrowhead had decided that, due to all of the publicity put out by Edgar and his estranged wife, it wasn't safe to have him at a game. In their eyes, he was a potential terrorist threat. Either he was being sought by threatening individuals or he was a threat himself. Either way, they couldn't risk that type of danger to all of the other fans at Arrowhead. This enraged Edgar. He went on an all-out media campaign to have the decision reversed and, although he found quite a number of sympathetic ears, the stadium remained firm in their decision. At one point, the stadium offered him rotating seats so that he was never in one place twice (making him harder to sight), but Edgar angrily declined, wanting his own seat. Period. This really put a damper on our business. We stopped painting helmets on anyone's head, because the fans weren't allow into the stadium if their heads looked anything like a helmet. That's the story in a very large nutshell. The last we heard (Fall 2004), he is still banned from Arrowhead but has been in negotiations to have that decision reversed.
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This website and all of it's contents, including the artwork represented, are ©copyrighted by Colleen May and The Airbrush Shoppe, Etc., 2005-2007.  Any unauthorized use or reproduction of the photos, text, artwork or any other artistic objects contained herein is expressly forbidden, without the aurthor's written permission.