Friends hold a banner they found in Somerville, Mass., that proclaims the Boston Red Sox are the 2018 American League East Champions, though the team has not yet clinch the division, Sept. 18, 2018. A Red Sox spokesman said the banner apparently fell off a vendor's delivery truck, and planned to send a courier to retrieve the banner Wednesday.
Friends hold a banner they found in Somerville, Mass., that proclaims the Boston Red Sox are the 2018 American League East Champions, though the team has not yet clinch the division, Sept. 18, 2018. A Red Sox spokesman said the banner apparently fell off a vendor's delivery truck, and planned to send a courier to retrieve the banner Wednesday. Credit: BOSTON 25 NEWS via AP/Ted Daniel

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — The Boston Red Sox have not clinched this year’s American League East division championship, but a banner marking the accomplishment has already been accidentally unveiled.

Boson-area friends Louie Iacuzzi, James Amaral and Randy Baldasarri say they found the banner on a road Monday morning after it apparently fell off a delivery truck in Somerville, Massachusetts.

But the trio held onto the banner for two days, hoping they’d be rewarded with game tickets or a chance to meet their favorite players.

Instead, the Boston Globe reports , the men took the banner to Fenway Park on Wednesday afternoon and returned empty-handed.

Iacuzzi says he always intended to return the banner and rejected accusations he stole it.