An End to a Tragic Story?

As most of you know, my dad was scammed this past weekend at the Tech game. He traveled all the way down from Ohio to not only celebrate my birthday but to go the Tech vs. Miami game. Of course I tell him that tickets are scarce and if he did find any they were going to be outrageous in price. He thought what the heck, if he didn't find any he would just tailgate with us and then go downtown to watch the game. Well at some point after the Walk, he ran into this dude who was selling tickets. The guy wanted $250 for each ticket. Dad told him that he needed two tickets and that he would give him $200 for both. The scammer happily agreed. So my dad comes back and says that he got two tickets to the game for only $200. I couldn't believe he actually found some (relatively) cheap. And boy was my 8 year old sister excited! She couldn't believe that she was going to a football game for the first time. I take a look at the tickets and was like, cool deal!

We (the section 20 folks) finally get to our seats and I get a message from my dad. He told me that he had fake tickets and that he and my little sister were escorted out of the game. Once again I couldn't believe it. How could this happen? I was completely shocked. I mean, I have heard of fake tickets being sold at previous Tech games (a couple of years ago), but I never would have thought that would happen to someone I know, much less someone I was related to. The entire story (including how my dad got home) is too crappy to spend the time to blog about. If anyone is really interested on how the drama played out then send me an email and I will fill you in.

So anyhow, my dad more less gets over the whole thing. The money wasn't an issue. A bummer yes, but no big deal. As an avid craps player, he's used to seeing that kind of money come and go in a blink of an eye. He was just upset that my little sister wasn't going to her first football game. BTW, we have been telling her for the past 3 years that she can go to a football game "next year". Unfortunately for her I guess it's still true.

The Roanoke Times printed an article today that may bring closure to the situation. I hope this is the same guy that sold my dad his tickets. When I called my dad to tell him about it he was happy that someone got caught. It's not like my dad was the only victim. He was 1 out of like 200 to 300 according to the article. From the description of the tickets involved it sounds like it might be the same guy, or at least from the same ring of culprits.

Thank god we set the record for the longest tailgate, because if I had not got in those extra few laughs then it would have been absolutely the worst birthday I have ever experienced!!