2 Investigators: Woman Shells Out $400 For Adele Tickets, But They're Fake
(CBS) -- Christine Pagliaro is a big fan of superstar Adele. So is her mother.
So, money was no object when Christine found a pair of tickets for $400 on Craigslist.
"My mom is a great mom, and she's done a lot for all of us, and she's getting older, and I wanted to do something special for her," the daughter tells CBS 2's Pam Zekman.
Pagliaro met the seller on a South Loop street corner and handed over the money. Soon she learned the bad news: The Tickets were fake.
"I felt stupid, you know, sick to my stomach that I just gave away $400," Christine Pagliaro says.
Kathy, her mother, says the crook robbed them of their special mother-daughter day.
"I wanna slap him upside the head and say get a conscience and get some values in your life," she says.
The Chicago Police Department's organized crime unit recently busted a fake ticket ring run by gang members.
"Depending on how in demand the event was, they would make $60,000 or more selling fictitious tickets," Chief Anthony Riccio says.
The money funds their criminal enterprise, he says.
It's not clear if Christine bought her fake tickets from an organized gang, but it fits the pattern. Christine contacted Craigslist about the fake ad, but says the online service did not take it down.
Craiglist did not respond to inquiries from CBS 2.
Experts say only buy secondary market tickets from websites that guarantee the authenticity of their tickets.
