Scalper Scam, Part Two: Tower Pleads Not Guilty
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To recap last week’s column: A largely white and affluent group had gathered early to get tickets for the show, which went on sale at eight. To obviate overnight camping the store–the former Rose Records outlet on Wabash–used little red “carnival tickets” in a lottery system to randomize fans’ places in line. But when the numbers were called out, two dozen scruffy-looking scalper minions had somehow magicked themselves to the front of the line. (Most of them were black, making them stand out from the rest of the crowd all the more.) The crowd screamed bloody murder; after a great deal of confusion, the store was forced to come up with a new starting number for the line. Eventually most of the fans there got tickets, though not before the show had been on sale for nearly ten minutes.
But this tactic would have created duplicate tickets, which weren’t in evidence that morning. How does Tower explain that? “I just don’t know,” Kim admits. To the people in line that day there was a clearer, less elaborate explanation: someone had slipped the first two dozen tickets to a scalper. “I have complete confidence in my staff,” Kim says in response. “We have all the original Rose people here, people who’ve been here for 30 years in some cases. My staff was not involved with these scalpers.”
Schmitsville
“There were other, minor problems with the pieces as well, but that’s enough for now. The Sun-Times regrets the errors.”
