A Florida man who scammed a family of San Francisco 49ers fans looking to watch their team in the Super Bowl has finally been arrested following a two month investigation.
According to Mike Rosenberg of the San Jose Mercury News, 37-year old Robert Pham was arrested after advertising himself as a Baltimore Ravens fan looking to sell four tickets to the game on Craigslist. Sharon Osgood of Hayward, Calif. allegedly paid $5,900 to Pham to purchase the tickets but when the package arrived there were no tickets to be had. Instead, they found taunts written at their expense.
“Go Ravens! LOL!” was one of the messages found in the package.
Pham is being held in Coral Springs, Fla. with bail set at $20,000. He has been charged with one count of felony theft by false pretenses. Pham claims he sent the tickets and someone else had to have removed them from the package but authorities say evidence doesn’t support his chain of events.
The Osgoods still got to attend the game as Ticketmaster, StubHub and the 49ers all offered free tickets to the family after learning of their story. They even got to have breakfast in New Orleans with Troy Aikman leading up to the game.
“We got to go to the game, and that’s all we ever wanted,” Osgood said. “Yeah, we lost $5,900, but we still got to the game, and we had an awesome time.”
Osgood did say they won’t be purchasing tickets on Craigslist ever again.