The devil, as they say, is in the details. Sometimes, it can be in the lack of details.
Northeast Philadelphia's Jason Hilbert, 28, learned that the hard way last year when he tried to sell 16 box-seat tickets for the Aug. 12, 2010 Phillies home game against the Dodgers for $30 apiece. Funny thing about the tickets was that they did not have a face price. They also had an unusual blue foil feature on them and the legend "EMC2."
Still, Hilbert found a willing buyer and set up a meet for last July 28. The buyer did not show but the Philadelphia police did. It seems the person who wanted to buy the tickets decided to check with the Phillies box office where officials told him they belonged to one M. Nutter, as in Mayor of Philadelphia, as in the mayor's box at Citizens Bank Park.
Caught in the sting, Hilbert went to trial Wednesday before Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Dawn Segal where he was convicted of receiving stolen property and sentenced to 12 months probation and drug and alcohol counseling.
According to Assistant District Attorney Lisa Myers, the tickets were in a brief case stolen from the home of Chris Creelman, chief of staff of City Councilwoman Joan L. Krajewski, sometime between July 23 and 28. The mayor's office sometimes gives unused tickets for the mayor's box to other city officials to use.
Also in the suitcase were some jewelry and an ornate box containing the ashes of Creelman's pet dog. Neither the jewelry nor the ashes were recovered, Myers said.
The Phillies, by the way, played quite a game, beating the Dodgers 10 to 9, after coming to bat in the eighth inning seven runs behind.