The sale of fake tickets for big sporting events is a growing concern in sports, but a couple of Alabama fans on top of their game managed to catch one scummy ticket scalper this week in Tampa.
Two brothers found someone selling tickets to the College Football Playoff national championship game between Alabama and Clemson through an advertisement on Craigslist, explained one of the brothers (Bryant Gentry). After getting in contact with ticket seller Joseph Steven Escalera, the two brothers waited outside a Tampa bar on Sunday night to make the transaction at a cost of $1,000 per ticket. For personal security purposes, one of the brothers took a selfie with the ticket seller “just in case.”
It turns out, that was a good decision. After completing the transaction and later inspecting the tickets, some flaws in the ticket were noticed and the brothers came to the unsettling realization they had been duped. Rather than simply call the cops and let the authorities take care of the crime themselves, the brothers went into action in the interest of protecting other fans from getting scammed in similar fashion.
How did they do that? By setting up Escalera for what he thought would be a purchase of a third ticket. The brothers arranged to meet the devious ticket vendor outside a bar on Monday. While Escalera was selling the faulty ticket to the third brother involved, the two other brothers came up from behind and pinned him down and held a Coke bottle to the back of his head. While pinned down, Escalera’s body was checked by the brothers and additional fake tickets were discovered.
As the authorities arrived in response to the incident, the brothers explained the situation to the police and Escalera was arrested. He now faces charges of grand theft and fraudulent possession of tickets.
While Escalera awaits his legal process in jail, the brothers were left to watch the game from their hotel. Fortunately, they can feel good about doing a good deed and preventing others from being scammed by this scoundrel.
