A local man says he bought four upper-deck University of South Carolina football tickets from a Craigslist seller for $400, only to arrive at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia and find out the tickets had been reported stolen.
According to a police report filed Monday with the Charleston Police Department, Gamecocks fan Robert Bennett responded to a Craigslist posting in August from a North Charleston man who was selling two tickets each to USC vs. Florida (Nov. 16) and USC vs. Clemson (Nov. 30). Bennett says he bought the tickets from the man, a black male who identified himself as Ryan Torbett, on Aug. 18 at Citadel Mall.
It wasn’t until the day of the Florida game that Bennett found out the tickets were worthless. When he presented the tickets at the gate, an employee informed him that a season ticket holder had called the box office before the season opener to report that he had never received his tickets. The season ticket holder was issued new tickets and the old ones were reported stolen.
According to the police report, Bennett was able to find additional tickets to the Florida game for $140, but he hasn’t had any luck scratching up a pair of authentic Clemson tickets.
Taking a look at TicketExchange, a Ticketmaster website for trading sports tickets, there are no tickets available for the rivalry match against Clemson. There are, however, still a few on sale for this Saturday’s big match against the mighty Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. Last we checked, the highest price was $81.
According to TicketExchange’s FAQs, tickets sold on the site are guaranteed to be authentic.
In conclusion, ticket thieves might be the worst thing to happen to Carolina fans since this sorority girl started singing:
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