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Taco Bake: Stop-and-frisk poster boy busted for ticket scalping

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His ticket has finally been punched!

A poster-boy opponent of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program was 
busted by the feds in an elaborate ticket-scalping scheme — 
while on probation for an earlier rip-off that preyed on 
tourists hoping to attend blockbuster Broadway shows and 
sporting events.

Angel Ortiz — who publicly blasted stop and frisk and later 
scored $15,000 from the city through a class-action suit — 
allegedly used stolen credit card information to buy more than 
$180,000 worth of tickets to “The Book of Mormon,” “Dear Evan 
Hansen” and other shows during 2016 and 2017.

Ortiz, 24, used a variety of aliases to hawk the tickets on 
Craigslist, where he also offered tough-to-get tickets to the 
smash musical “Hamilton,” according to White Plains federal 
prosecutors.

But some of the ducats he allegedly sold were actually fakes, 
which one repeat customer found out the hard way by purchasing 
six for between $3,000 and $3,200.

Ortiz’s racket also involved several PayPal accounts that he 
opened with stolen identities and used to accept payments, court 
papers said.

Ortiz was previously busted three times for selling counterfeit 
tickets and was sentenced to five years probation in 2014.

At the time, he claimed he was going straight by working as a 
doorman in Midtown but expressed no remorse and actually blamed 
his victims.

“I’m their karma and this is my karma — we all got karma,” he 
said outside court.

Ortiz also said the people he scammed could have had “a way 
worse experience.”

“They could have come to New York and never left,” he said 
ominously.

Ortiz was busted by US Postal Inspection Service agents on 
Tuesday in Kissimmee, Fla., where court papers say the former 
Bronx resident lives in a gated community about 10 minutes from 
Disney World.

He’s charged with six counts of wire fraud, access device fraud 
and aggravated identity theft, which each carry maximum 
sentences of 10 to 20 years in prison.

Ortiz was released without bond pending a future appearance in 
White Plains federal court.

He didn’t return a message seeking comment, and the federal 
defender appointed to represent him in Florida declined to 
comment.

A spokeswoman for the Postal Inspection Service urged people to 
only buy tickets to events from “reputable” sellers.

“Never forget: if an offer sounds too good to be true, it is,” 
spokeswoman Donna Harris said.

https://nypost.com/2019/01/16/stop-and-frisk-poster-boy-busted-
for-ticket-scalping/
         

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Taco Bake: Stop-and-frisk poster boy busted for ticket scalping Bean Soup <beansoup@cnn.com> - 2019-07-13 10:05 +0200

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