Suspected scalper arrested at PBA game at Araneta Coliseum
MANILA, Philippines — A man ended up behind bars for illegally selling a bundle of tickets worth P60,000 for a basketball game at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City on Wednesday night.
Richard Sadul, 26, was spotted by policemen while trying to attract basketball fans with a couple of Philippine Basketball Association tickets outside one of the gates of the coliseum in Cubao.
Senior Inspector Gil Carodan, intelligence chief of the Cubao police station, said the ticket scalper claimed to be a businessman and a resident of Quiapo in Manila.
What baffled policemen was how Sadul was able to buy 256 pieces or P60,000 worth of tickets to the PBA Governors Cup game on Wednesday night.
“Even the security office of the Araneta Coliseum said they are not allowed to sell such a huge amount of tickets,” Carodan said.
Asked as to how he was able to buy so many tickets alone, the suspect claimed that he was ordered by a politician to buy tickets, supposedly to be given away to constituents of barangay (village) captains running in the elections.
Sadul was charged with violation of a city ordinance prohibiting scalping, or the selling of tickets outside the authorized ticket booth.
The suspect was spotted by anti-vice operatives near the Red Gate of the coliseum, a handful of tickets in hand at around 9:30 p.m.Wednesday.
“His eyes were scanning the crowd for potential buyers and he had a bunch of tickets with him,” Carodan said.
Carodan himself pretended to be interested and asked him if he still had patron tickets, but Sadul said he had run out of patron tickets.
Instead, the suspect offered lower box tickets – normally priced at P800 – but at an astronomical tag of P1,500. The police official said he wanted to buy eight pieces, to which Sadul said he had enough tickets.
Those words were enough to land Sadul in jail for illegally selling the tickets outside the authorized ticket booth.
Sadul initially claimed that he had extra tickets because his companions did not show up. But during investigation, the suspect yielded 256 tickets hidden in his sling bag.
The tickets for sale were mostly patron tickets, lower box tickets and upper box A tickets which he sold up ranging from P800 to around P2,000.
The arrested scalper also claimed to be acting alone, although Carodan said a syndicate could be operating within the coliseum.
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