Wisconsin man has $7,000 worth of MLB playoff tickets mistakenly mailed to him, sells them for $30 each
A Wisconsin man who mistakenly had $7,000 Brewers playoff tickets mailed to his home is facing a felony theft charge after allegedly selling his expensive findings for a minimal profit.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Eddie Patlan of Waukesha received tickets that belonged to Travis Brzezinski, a season-ticket holder who bought the Brewers’ 10-game playoff packages last fall. Brzezinski paid a total of $6,915 to receive four tickets to each of Milwaukee’s 10 potential home games in the playoffs, which includes the NLDS, NLCS and World Series.
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Patlan allegedly attempted to resell the tickets originally valued at $173 individually on StubHub, a secondary online market for ticket resales. One of the buyers contacted Waukesha police after learning the tickets he attempted to purchase were reported stolen. He reported buying three tickets for $30 each, or $143 below the original value.
Patlan was subsequently arrested and charged with one felony count of theft of movable property. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Change of address
So how did Patlan end up with the tickets in the first place?
He moved into the right house at just the right time, or the wrong house at the wrong time based on his misguided handling of the situation.
According to Brzezinski, the Brewers typically sent his tickets digitally. Because of that, he never thought to update his address after moving. The playoff tickets in question were mailed to his former address, which now happens to be Patlan’s address, without his knowledge.
A woman questioned in connection to a Stub Hub account where some of the tickets were sold, confirmed that Patlan had received the tickets by mail. Regular-season tickets that arrived during the season had been discarded, but the valuable playoff tickets were listed on the secondary market.
Buyer goes undercover
The same man who contacted police after buying the stolen tickets was also involved in Patlan’s physical arrest.
Police requested the buyer set up a meeting with Patlan under the guise of obtaining additional tickets. When Patlan agreed, police were able to organize his arrest. When questioned at the scene, Patlan reportedly told more than one story about how he received the tickets.
We’ve seen our share of ticket scams and shenanigans over the years, but we’ve never seen a case quite like this. From the unique manner in which the tickets were obtained, to the even more bizarre methods of the accused, we dare say this will go down as one of the saddest and silliest attempts to illegally profit from selling MLB tickets.
To think, if the accused had been honest and returned the tickets, he likely would have ended up with his own tickets to a playoff game. Instead, he tried selling what fell into his lap for what might not have amounted to enough money to pay for his legal bills.
On the spectrum of possible decisions, this rates somewhere between poor and the worst decision ever.
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