PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN 6) – Police have arrested a man who is accused of selling fake concert tickets, according to police and prosecutors.
Keller Michael McInerney admitted to court staff that he does under the table sales and brings in anywhere from $500 to $1,000, according to court records.
The 24-year-old suspect was arrested by Portland Police on Wednesday, according to jail records. The DA’s Office on Thursday charged McInerney with one count of unlawful possession of heroin, four counts of second-degree forgery, and one count each of carrying a concealed weapon and third-degree theft.
According to police reports, Ryan McFallo and Krystie Van alerted an officer outside Director Park in downtown about the alleged scam. McFallo told police that earlier in the day he had purchased tickets at the nearby Starbucks at Pioneer Courthouse Square. The sale was set up on Craigslist, according to police.
McFallo gave the officer the tickets. The officer reports the tickets were printed on a regular size piece of paper. On the piece of paper, there was the header: “Ordered by Tyler Hall on July 16, 2015.”
Both tickets had the exact same ticket ID number, suggesting, according to police, that the tickets had been copied.
McFallo told police that a representative from the ticket company confirmed the tickets were in fact bogus.
Van started doing her own investigative work. She went back onto Craigslist and found that the ad for the tickets was still posted. She responded to the ad and set up a second meeting with the suspect at the same Starbucks in downtown. Van told police that she saw the name “Keller Mcinnerney” in the address line for the seller’s email. She then started searching Facebook using that name, records show.
McFallo and Van found a picture on Facebook that they claimed appeared to match the description of the man who sold them the fake tickets earlier, records show. When the man, later identified as McInerney, showed up at Starbucks, McFallo flagged down the officer.
The officer watched as Van contacted McInerney inside the Starbucks.
McInerney was taken into custody and during a search, the officer found heroin and a padlock that had been wrapped to one end of a sock.
Police say the “smiley” can be used as a weapon to hit people, and that McInerney had it concealed in his pocket. Van gave the officer another copy of the bogus tickets and told him that McInerney told her that he would give her the tickets for $80, according to records.
McInerney eventually told police that he works for a man named “Tyler Hall,” according to records. McInerney told police that he believes Hall was getting the tickets for free somehow and was making “a lot of money selling them,” records show. After McInerney sells tickets, he meets with Hall and is allowed to keep 10% of the profits, records show.
McInerney also admitted that he is a drug dealer, according to court records. In an e-mail sent Aug. 24, McInerney wrote: “I’m certain I do not recall ‘admitting to being a drug dealer.'”