By OnMilwaukee Staff Writers   Published May 24, 2011 at 9:00 PM

Carlos Gomez can relax for a moment, he's not the most hated figure in town anymore. The title, at least temporarily, has been passed to Erin McHardie.

McHardie was thrust into the spotlight (though she's allegedly lurking in the shadows at the moment) Tuesday morning after she posted pictures of a trunk full of Bernie Brewer lawn ornaments that she picked up Tuesday morning during a Brewers promotion on the Lakefront.

One thousand of the statues were to be given away to fans – one per household, the rules stated – beginning at 7 a.m., but it didn't take long for the promotion to get out of hand as some folks loaded bags and vehicles with the statues, many of them ending up on eBay later in the day.

McHardie, though, was "caught" after folks on Twitter saw her pictures and complaints about not winning a prize. Later in the day, she had taken down her Twitter account and put her Facebook profile on complete lockdown.

Of course, these situations are tailor-made for folks with nothing better to do than play with social media. A feed representing the statues has popped up as has the obligatory "NotErinMcHardie" account while over on Facebook, somebody started a page calling McHardie a greedy you-know-what.

Anyway, what do you think? Much ado about nothing or is McHardie now a civic villain?