After mistakenly receiving $37,000 worth of Phillies tickets, a man is accused of using the tickets as gifts and even selling some on Craigslist.
The ticket belong to the News Journal Media Group. One of their employees actually broke the case when he spotted some of the tickets for sale on the online classified site.
"He received a package that was inadvertently delivered to the company and he opened it, and instead of doing the right thing and returning the tickets to sender, he decided to keep them for himself," said Cpl. Mark Ivey, Wilmington Police.
The 324 tickets -- four for every home game -- are located in the posh Diamond Club. The tickets and 81 parking passes were supposed to be sent to the News Journal Media Group in February. Instead, they wound up at another address and in the hands of Scott Lascala, according to investigators.
Once he had the tickets, police say Lascala gave some to coworkers and sold others.
When the News Journal employee spotted the Craigslist tickets on March 9, he alerted police.
Police set up a sting at a parking lot and took the seller into custody. He told police the tickets and parking pass came from Lascala.
Investigators arrested Lascala at his workplace at 1209 N. Orange Street. The 40-year-old man from Newark, Delaware is charged with theft and conspiracy.
According to court records, Lascala wanted to use the money to buy a wedding ring.
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"I'm surprised that he thought he was going to get away with it. He probably should have followed that old saying, if it isn't yours don't touch it," said Cpl. Ivey.
The Postal Service is also investigating the case to find out how the tickets ended up six miles away from their destination.
In the meantime, police want anyone who purchased the tickets, not realizing they were stolen, to contact M/Cpl. Gerald Connor at 302-576-3670.
The tickets in question are for Diamond Club, Section G, Row 12, Seats 7 to 10.
Lascala is scheduled to be in New Castle County court April 10.
