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Last Monday evening, Casey Cornell responded to an ad on Craigslist offering a pair of Minnesota Wild tickets for $120. He figured he was getting a good deal.


But when he and a friend showed up for the Wild's 7 p.m. game against the Winnipeg Jets, their tickets were declined.


Cornell went to the Wild box office — and found the police waiting for him. They were investigating a ticket scam, and they told Cornell he'd fallen for it.


"I guess I trusted him a little more than I should have, apparently," Cornell said of the suspect.


Cornell and his friend didn't want to miss the game, so he bought two more tickets at $90 apiece. And at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Minneapolis police announced an arrest in the case. They said they were holding a man suspected of selling counterfeit hockey and football tickets to about 40 people since December.


Police arrested the unidentified 28-year-old suspect Monday evening after staging a ticket purchase with him through Craigslist. Police Sgt. Brian Sand said the suspect made thousands of dollars selling the fraudulent tickets over the season.  

Police Lt. Kim Lund discovered the scam while working off-duty in the Minnesota Vikings ticket office last fall. She worked on the case in her spare time, trying to figure out who was selling the fake tickets, and found a pattern. 


The suspect allegedly would purchase e-tickets through Ticketmaster with a stolen credit card. Then he'd print out the tickets before the barcodes on the tickets were invalidated. He'd make multiple copies of the same ticket and sell them to Vikings or Wild fans or concertgoers at a deeply discounted price. 

"I realized that the person that had been selling the tickets fraudulently for the Vikings fans was also selling them for the Wild," Lund said. 


Police said the suspect would frequently change his cell phone number and use different names. 

Cornell said he'd learned a lesson: "If you can, try to avoid e-tickets. Try to get hard copy tickets."

Lund said she has dealt with ticket issues with the Vikings for 18 years. People no longer try to counterfeit actual tickets, she said, "because it is so easy to dummy up an e-ticket."

Bobby Blaha is a Wild fan who also bought a fraudulent ticket from the suspect via Craigslist. The 31-year-old disabled Army veteran said he was looking forward to watching Monday's game.


A few hours before the game started, the suspect texted Blaha an address where he could pick up his tickets. 


"I thought the address he gave me was his house address," Blaha said. "But when I got there, the addresses did not line up, so I ended up in the back of an alley."


He eventually met the seller at 5 p.m. at 24th and Lyndale Avenue S. and paid $110 in cash for the two tickets. The suspect was arrested an hour later. 


When he went to the game with his dad, they were told the tickets were fake. 

"We were very disappointed because this game was very important," he said. "They needed to win to make to the playoffs."


Like Blaha, police bought a ticket and agreed to meet the suspect at 24th and Lyndale. But before they could arrest him, he realized what was going on and took off. Police caught up with him and arrested him. 


Lund said they are not naming the suspect because they are waiting for more victims to come forward. Police are also trying to figure out how the suspect got his stolen credit card. 


With the Wild playoffs coming up, Lund said, fans should be careful when buying e-tickets. 


"If you are buying a ticket from someone at a venue, such as the Xcel," she said, "if the person selling the ticket refuses to go with you to the front gate ... don't buy that ticket from them."

Crime, Law and Justice

Sports

Mukhtar M. Ibrahim

Author

Police have arrested a man they say bought a ticket with a stolen credit card, printed multiple copies and sold them cheap.

Casey Cornell, a victim of fraudulent ticket scam.

Cops warn Wild fans of fake e-tickets

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