As soon as sixth grade is out, Alex Santacroce drops his black Air Jordan backpack in the house, grabs a banana ( good for hand cramps ) from the kitchen, and mounts his custom-built SE Savage Flyer bike. As he coasts down the driveway with the front wheel atop, carefully shifting his body to keep the handles right, he nearly seems grave. Riding is totally mind-clearing for him. He says maybe he’ll attempt a technique 1, 000 occasions before it’s perfect.
To some people and the Haverford, Pennsylvania, officers, Santacroce, 11, is the city’s main danger. He and his sisters also annoy the adults who live near by riding bicycles and electric scooters around Marilyn Park and performing hero tips in public places.
Additionally, Santacroce has effectively monetized being a young cyclist who perform bizarre stunts on his vehicle and annoys your neighbors under the skilled moniker Oneway Lilman. He has  , 1.4 million followers on YouTube , and earned around$ 100, 000 last month through sponsoring and advertising, according to his kids. He frequently trips around in a half-shell Louis Vuitton hat with his name on it, and bundles of freebies from glove and clothing retailers pile up at home.
Lilman’s online popularity has given the traditional residential conflict over frequent space and how kids should behave a contemporary twist. Some neighbors have described the family as” disgraceful” in secret Facebook groups and questioned whether the road kids are “feral.” The home has frequently ended up in court, Alexander Santacroce, Lilman’s parents, pleaded guilty in 2021 to “allowing a kid to improperly operate a bike”.
John Viola, the police chief in Haverford Township, said,” We would choose not to give this home any more media coverage.
The condition has just been escalating. In response to the latest round of officers presence, Santacroce planted a mark in his front gardens that said” My Cousin is a Karen”, which , Philadelphia Magazine , initially reported.
Lilman and his sisters rode their electric scooters up a little slope at the foot of the street on a new day. All four vehicle, and all, except the 5-year-old, publish articles online, though Lilman’s job has taken off most strongly. ” Reason Dad pays the most interest to him”, 14-year-old Alexa muttered in argument. ( Her mother disagreed. )
The rubber ‘ daily motion caused the grass to be sagging in some spots.
” I made an effort to explain this is what my children do. You know, this is his job”, said Michelle Santacroce, Lilman’s family. My children will never be able to stop them from doing what they love to do.
Four-foot-nine with a smattering of wrinkles, Alex” Lilman” Santacroce is a true follower of “bike life” — the process of popping cartwheels and performing stunts on motorbikes, often while weaving through prospects on crowded city streets.
” It takes problems apart”, he explained. You only think about you on the bike, and you’re not thinking about anything else.
Like any young kid-biker-influencer, Lilman studied , vehicle living icons , on YouTube and Instagram to understand their tricks, and with his brother’s help, he started posting his personal footage online. For his 8th birthday, his parents organized a “rideout”, where local kids gathered to do stunts on their bikes at Havertown Middle School. Some older children joined and began swerving in traffic, Michelle said, but overall it was a lovely day. In their backyard after the ride, the Santacroces served cake to neighbors and strangers.
Looking back now, that was a turning point.
” I think once we did that, we were kind of labeled as a problem. As if we had bad intent doing that”, Michelle said.
At the same time, Lilman’s devotion was starting to pay off. When he was 9, the , BMX company SE , invited him to join an elite nationwide crew of 15 riders as an officially sponsored biker. Like the older influencers he idolized, he would now have a monthly salary, a steady stream of free, expensive SE bikes, and the opportunity to travel the world on all-expenses-paid bike trips.
In a video , SE posted on their website, 9-year-old Lilman, with a buzz cut and euphoric grin, accepted the invitation to join the team, tears sliding down his cheeks.
” He’s just a really popular, nice kid and he’s good on the bike. He’s a sponsor’s dream”, Todd Lyons, director of SE Bikes, said in a phone conversation.
So Lilman had a job creating content for the third grade on a bike.
It was a new world for his parents. Though they both grew up biking in West Philly, Alexander works as a plumber, and Michelle works as a paralegal.
They also manage their child’s growing online following while navigating the occasionally difficult underbelly of online fame. According to Michelle, this year Lilman has been repeatedly made fun of by older students in school.
Some residents of Havertown expressed growing resentment and concern for kids performing stunts on the street. The family lives in a desirable neighborhood that has a lot of houses and cul-de-sacs close to the Merion Golf Club.
” I was just on Garlor]Drive ] and witnessed something disturbing”, one resident wrote in a neighborhood Facebook group in March 2021. A group of young people ( preteens/teens ) riding their bikes as cars are sharing an exact wheelie, and some poor driver will feel the same way when one of those kids hits their car and suffers injuries or worse.
The Santacroces claimed that the post did n’t mention their children. The following month, Alexander Santacroce was given a citation for “allowing a child to illegally operate a bicycle.” He said it stemmed from then-12-year-old Alexa standing up on the seat of her bike, a trick called surfing. A person operating a bicycle is required to not ride a bicycle that is not astride a permanent and regular seat thereon.
Bike life , has its roots , in low-income communities of color that have few recreation facilities, according to scholars, and in Philly and across the country, it has  , long bedeviled police and some residents  , who see it as a dangerous nuisance. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has made , cracking down , on illegal ATV and dirt bike riders a key priority, seeing it as a quality-of-life issue.
In the suburbs, Santacroce pleaded guilty, the kids kept biking, and Lilman continued to grow online.
” This is the reason you’re wearing a helmet,” the statement read.
For the most part, Lilman’s YouTube videos are not slickly produced or edited, instead offering meandering documentation of his life. In one of his , most popular videos, he’s seat-belted in the back of the family car, next to his two younger siblings.
” What is up, YouTube”? he says. ” So I’m about to ask my mom, can I go to the bank, get some money out, some YouTube money out, and buy a 150 today”?
The younger sister, who is also unrelated, and chatters briefly about using the family pool, is then interacted with in the video. After Michelle says yes to Lilman’s request to buy a dirt bike, “only cause it’s your birthday”, the family visits Citizens Bank and Lilman withdraws$ 3, 800 in cash while his dad films. To fans, his life is an example of potential unlocked.
” Any thing is possible who cares if someone disagrees with your vision, keep grinding”, a commenter wrote.
The annoyance of the neighbors has only fueled Lilman’s content creation. In a , recent reel , posted to his Instagram account, which his dad manages, Lilman pops a wheelie on a pedal bike down a carless street during golden hour. The front wheel rolls away mid-ride, and a woman walking in the street says,” That’s dangerous when people are walking”. The post, captioned” We Found KAREN😭”, generated tens of thousands of likes and dozens of gleeful anti-Karen comments.
Sometimes, according to Santacroce, the brand benefits from the idea of danger and breaking the rules. But of course, there is real danger as well. In the fall, Alexa hit a raised drainage sewer while zig-dashing downhill, which was a serious accident. Before her bike crashed on top of her, she flipped over her handlebars and face-planted. She ultimately required a bone graft and reconstructive surgery this spring to repair her leg and two of her foot’s bones.
The kids have braved smaller injuries, too. In a YouTube video titled” Bike Life Rideout Gone Wrong.” Lil Bro Gets Staples! “!, Santacroce documents the aftermath of a crash involving Lilman’s brother, Dante, who is 9. Another biker hit him at the end of a rideout, and his head collided with the bike’s handlebars.
” This is why you wear a helmet, guys”, Santacroce said, zooming in on a small bloody gash on his son’s head. The family then moved on to an emergency room.
” You probably do n’t get many people YouTubing while you’re in here, right”? Santacroce asked from behind the camera, as a health-care worker stapled Dante’s cut closed.
Such injuries, in Alexa and Lilman’s opinion, are simply a part of bike life, and they have frequently found such joy that the injuries seem worthwhile.
” When you’re riding a bike, the first thing you’re worried about when you fall is your bike”, Lilman said.
” Yeah, like when I crashed, it was like,’ But what about my bike? Is my bike alright?'” Alexa said. ” When can I ride my bike”?
Another citation
In April, police mailed another citation to the Santacroce home, this one for “driving an unregistered vehicle”. The police citation noted a red electric-powered bike called a , Razor Dirt Rocket. The Santacroces claim that there is no registration for the vehicle in question, which they claim the police examined thoroughly during a visit to their home. Afterward, Santacroce planted the” My Neighbor is a Karen” flag, and Michelle began getting calls from friends and coworkers:  , I heard there was a police raid on your street.
She was upset by what seemed to her an outsize, un-neighborly reaction.
She said,” My husband does all of their plumbing there,” gesturing to the neighborhood where she assumed the police calls came from.
Haverford police told Philly Mag that they had responded to at least six incidents involving Oneway Lilman in particular and that they were concerned about the safety aspect of the bike riding in the neighborhood.
Joe Hagan, Haverford deputy chief of police, told Philly Mag that what bothers me most is having to show up at someone’s house to tell them their child was killed while doing stupid things on a bike. ” We take it seriously because of , that.  , And because the people who move here do so because they want to live in a quiet neighborhood”.
The Santacroce kids are largely restricted to the yard and driveway for now, unless they are filming YouTube content, for which they must travel to the neighborhood roads with a parent. Alexa would never want to go to the police station and conduct herself investigation.
” We wo n’t ride reckless. We will follow what you guys have to say,” she said. We simply want to experience new freedom and enjoyment.
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