St. Louis Cops Used Seized Tickets From Scalpers To Attend World Series Games In 2006

Los Angeles Dodgers v St Louis Cardinals - Game Three
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It might be time to trademark ‘Best Cops In Baseball.’

Recently released documents have revealed that more than a handful of St. Louis police officers seized tickets from scalpers during the Cardinals’ three World Series home games against the Detroit Tigers in 2006, then used those tickets or gave them to friends and family members.

Vice Sports reports that the St. Louis Police Department assembled a scalping detail that was assigned to confiscate tickets and arrest scalpers who were selling tickets at above face value. That detail successfully shut down an impressive number of scalpers, but many officers then took advantage of the forfeitures shortly afterwards.

The detail seized 98 tickets from 44 arrests. Of those 98 tickets, 34 of them—or 35 percent—were given by the arresting officers to family or friends, who then used the tickets themselves. Eight of the 18 detectives on the detail re-appropriated tickets. Confiscated scalped tickets were used for all three home games, often mere hours after the arrests and seizures.

It’s more than likely this kind of forfeiture abuse by police happens quite a bit, especially with big sporting events, but isn’t discovered by higher-ups within the department. Who knows, maybe some of those higher-ups even authorize this kind of thing.

So, how and why did these cops get caught? Well, have a look.

At 4:15 PM on the day of Game 5, Detective Michael Ehnes arrested Eric Johnson for scalping. Ehnes seized from Johnson two tickets in section 132, great seats to watch the eventual World Series-clinching win, along with $2,600 in cash—for which they refused to give him a receipt—according to Johnson’s complaint. Johnson subsequently overheard the officer on a phone asking his wife if she’d be interested in using the tickets for that evening’s game. The tickets were scanned for entry into Busch Stadium roughly two hours later, at 6:24 PM, plenty of time before the 7:30 PM first pitch. After the game, the tickets were then returned to Ehnes, who brought them back to the evidence locker, as all the other officers did, so as to not arouse any suspicion. When Johnson was released from custody, he claims he was only given back $539.

That’s right – one of these detectives was dumb enough to let the scalper he seized from hear him offer tickets to his wife. What a way to go down, you regular ol’ mastermind. I have to imagine the cop caught slipping was forced to sit alone at lunch for a while.

(Via Vice Sports)

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