Police ‘send message,’ arrest suspected Hip ticket scalpers

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This article was published 04/08/2016 (3697 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police have arrested two people who they say were scalping Tragically Hip tickets, with one trying to sell them for nearly four times their face value.

The iconic Canadian band performs Friday at MTS Centre as part of a cross-country tour arranged in May after lead singer and lyricist Gord Downie announced he has incurable brain cancer. Tickets sold out almost immediately.

The accused scalpers were each advertising pairs of floor tickets online. Const. Rob Carver said undercover officers contacted and met with each seller, resulting in their arrests.

“In this instance, two individuals both sold pairs of tickets. Those tickets had a face value of $117. One individual attempted to sell them for $800 for the pair, and the other ended up being bargained down to $680,” Carver said.

A 30-year-old man and 31-year-old woman were issued provincial offence notices for breaching the Amusement Act and were released. They could face fines set by the court up to $5,000.

“Section 60 of the Amusement Act does state that ‘no person shall barter exchange for any ticket to a place of amusement for a price or consideration greater than that paid or given therefore to the owner of the place of amusement to which it is an admission.’ Basically, you can’t sell them for more than you paid for them,” Carver said.

Carver said while ticket scalping is common, police often don’t have the resources to actively seek out scalpers. As well, it’s tough to track down scalpers from different provinces and countries, he said. But in this case, police decided to target locals taking advantage of fans desperate to see what’s likely to be the band’s final show in Winnipeg.

“The announcement of the Tragically Hip’s final concert tour was significant for Canadians and a lot of people are passionate about this group. Within hours of tickets going on sale, people were complaining online and to media about ticket scalping. I think in this instance we felt an obligation to address this. While we don’t do it as a normal course, it was done in this case to send a message.”

Carver said more arrests could come before the Hip hits the stage.

“We may in fact have officers out looking for scalping as well,” Carver said. “It is illegal. There are fines. We’ll seize the tickets.”

There are often uniformed police at large concerts and sporting events to help with crowd management and security, but he said those won’t be the officers looking for scalpers.

“I’m not saying we will not have undercover, plain-clothes officers out attempting to deal with potential scalping.”

bailey.hildebrand@freepress.mb.ca