A Yankees Rip-off

We spent the weekend in New York with Mom, Dad, and Kevin for his high school graduation trip to see the Yankees. All the tickets to the game for purchase on the internet were more than $100. My Dad, being the true Meacham that he is, refused to pay such a price for tickets, and decided that we should risk flying to New York without tickets and try to get them from scalpers before gametime for a cheaper price.

We knew that there were criminals scalping fake tickets. In fact, posted all around the stadium were signs that say: "Beware scalpers selling counterfeit tickets." We met a guy outside the stadium that was selling tickets. We asked him if he had 5 tickets for the next day's game and he pulled out some tickets from his coat pocket to show us. We were kind of skeptical that he was legit, but he told us he had been doing this business for 13 years. He pulled out a wad of cash that must have included 50 twenty dollar bills to prove to us that he had been doing business with many others.

My thought was that either he was for real or else he was ripping a lot of people off. We asked him if he would go up to the ticket office with us so that we could verify the tickets' legitimacy, but he declined by saying that even legit scalpers get hammered with a $200 fine for selling tickets within 1500 feet of the stadium, so he didn't want to be discovered. He was selling them for $50 instead of the face value of $65. My Dad and I deliberated a little more, but when he showed us that the seats were between home plate and the Yankees dugout just a few rows up, we decided that these tickets were too good to pass up. We bought 5 tickets for $250.

After buying the tickets, my dad marched right on over to the ticket office to ask for their verification. The man behind the counter looked at the tickets and said, "I'm sorry, these are fake." We were shocked, angered, betrayed, saddened, and a bit embarrassed for falling for a scam artist. We tried finding that guy, but of course he had walked away right after our transaction. My Dad called the scammer's cell phone number (which he had given us as "proof" that he was legit) and left a message on the voice mail that unless this guy called us back in one hour, we would call the police (which we never did).

Looking back, there were signs that should have tipped us off that this guy was bogus. The posted signs, the fact that he was selling them before gameday, that he wouldn't verify with us at the ticket office, that his ticket price was too good to be true--all these things pointed toward the conclusion that we were too obstinate to see. Afterwards it made me reflect on the signs of the Second Coming; I hope I'm not equally obstinate with those signs. And just like we were rejected at the gate to enter Yankee Stadium with our fake tickets, we will likewise not gain passage through the heavenly gates if we are not prepared and haven't given heed to the signs of the times.

ps--we had to buy another five tickets to finally get into the game.