Earned profit! Ohio man poses as fake parking attendant to sell entire lot before nearby football game, earns himself $1,600 — and tickets by lot operator
A con artist made $2,000 in just a few hours by posing as a parking attendant and charging $40 from people heading to a football game. The man was disguised in a fluorescent green vest and red cone to make the act seem more legitimate. The real parking attendants had yet to show up. 50 spaces were full when the workers arrived; Workers at a food bank charity are urging the man to turn himself in and donate his money to feed starving children.
An Ohio man got creative and posed as a parking attendant in the hours leading up to a football game in Cincinnati.
Police said the unidentified man looked the real deal because he wore a fluorescent green outfit and posed with a few red traffic cones and red flags to appear legit.
But its appearance doesn’t seem to set off any real red flags, with drivers willingly parking their cars there despite charging almost double the normal price.
The man’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to fill an entire empty parking lot with 50 spaces, making him $2,000 in just a few hours from a car costing $40. The lot usually charges $25 per car.
He was able to get out of the scam because the parking lot’s usual operators, Tri-State Parking, still didn’t show up for work. When they did, the whole lot was full.
People who parked their cars in the lot were issued a parking ticket, unknowingly paying an artist.
A con artist made $2,000 in just a few hours by posing as a parking attendant and charging $40 cars to people going to a football game.
The man was disguised in a fluorescent green vest and had a red cone to make the law look more legitimate while the real parking attendants had yet to appear.
The man was able to sell all 50 spaces for $40 a car — much more than the $25 the usual parking company charges.
The original parking company team confronted the man, but he sped away before the police arrived on the scene.
The scammer was caught on surveillance camera and dash cam footage that police hope can help identify the scammer.
The parking lot sits next to a food bank who say a large portion of the take-in is usually donated to the charity.
The scammer probably saw a good opportunity to make some quick cash by shutting down that particular branch of the charity.
Kurt Reiber, president and CEO of the Freestore Foodbank, said the man’s work resulted in about $1600 being stolen.
The scammer probably saw a good opportunity to make some quick cash by closing this branch of the charity, leaving the parking lot unoccupied.
Curt Reiber, president and CEO of the Freestore Foodbank, said the man lost about $1600 because of his work.
‘Basically, he set up fake cones and fake tickets and sold the whole parking lot. It was four or five hours before the game started,’ Reiber told WXIX.
‘We partnered with Tri-State Parking. They said they would handle it for us and refund us some money. The money we earned would help feed our children.
‘Tri-State came here and saw that the whole parking lot was full and proceeded to ticket the car and tell them, hey, you’re parking in this spot where we’re supposed to be parking,’ Reiber said. .
The charity claims the money the fraudster made could have fed 5,000 hungry local children.
The charity is now urging the man to contact police to donate the money he took to charity and face grand theft auto charges.
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