Susan Finkelstein got more than she bargained for.

She sought to go to one World Series game with her husband, Jack.

Instead she got to go to two - after being handcuffed in a bar, shackled to a wooden bench at the Bensalem police station and booked on misdemeanor charges of promoting prostitution.

Five policemen were mobilized, she said, to find out what she meant by a Craigslist ad she placed before the World Series:

"DESPERATE BLONDE NEEDS WS TIX. Diehard Phillies fan - gorgeous tall buxom blonde - in desperate need of two World Series Tickets. Price negotiable - I'm the creative type! Maybe we can help each other!"

Maybe not.

The case became a media sensation, with requests for interviews - and offers of tickets - coming in left and right. She was on national TV - and radio shows as far away as San Diego and Alaska.

But "fun" wouldn't be the word that describes all the attention - even if the arresting officers, who had drinks in the bar, had a good laugh, the Philadelphian said.

"Absurd" and "bizarre" come closer, she said. "We're definitely taking it very seriously."

She faces a Dec. 16 preliminary hearing on a charge that could carry a sentence of two years in jail.

She's still on paid leave from her job as an assistant communications director at the Wistar Institute, medical research center in University City.

And she knows that Googling her name will forever turn up mentions of the arrest.

She did, however, gain a couple of thousand Facebook friends, and, except for a piece in one suburban paper, got many words of encouragement and support.

She also got into the World Series - twice.

"She could have had a ticket to every single game," but she declined offers that had "strings attached," said her attorney, William J. Brennan.

Like the one about wearing a T-shirt with an unprintable phrase, he said.

Most of the suggestive, er, suggested deals were smart-alecky. "It was guys trying to get funny, which it wasn't, or just being stupid," she said.

But she and her husband did get into Game 2 at Yankee Stadium, the night before her appearance on the CBS Early Show, courtesy of firsthandtickets.com.

Good seats? "Let's just say we got a good view of the blimp," she said.

They also saw Game 3, despite a mixup over tickets that Wired 96.5's Chio secured from car dealer Gary Barbera. As cameras from Inside Edition rolled at Citizens Bank Park, the home club came through with similar seats, she said.

The lifelong Phils fan was disappointed the team lost both games.

The undercover cop who met her at Manny Brown's Bar & Grill at Neshaminy Mall was a pretty good actor, she said. "He was convincing in his role as a construction worker, and he was actually quite pleasant to talk to. . . . And he was attractive.

"He was absolutely central casting for this role," Brennan said. "This was no Sheriff Buford T. Justice. He really looked the part."

Brennan doubts the police have audio or video tapes of the encounter, which Finkelstein suggested was just playful talk.

"If I can flirt with someone and maybe get cheap tickets, more power to me," she told Inside Edition.

Brennan hopes prosecutors will reconsider and drop case - and maybe go after some of the blatant examples of real solicitation on Craigslist.

She's innocent until proven guilty, and it's unlikely any jury would convict her, he said.

Finkelstein hopes she'll have her familiar life back soon, as the media attention wanes and people stop recognizing her.

"I think it will definitely get back to normal," she said.

No, she hasn't gotten offers for reality shows.

But it has been a wild ride.

So much so she tempted to write about the case - and all the media attention - as a project for her master's degree in liberal arts at Penn.

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.