Ketan Shah, 48,of Lawrenceville, Ga. , allegedly collected nearly $1 million in exchange for Super Bowl tickets and VIP treatment that he never delivered on to victims, which include his own mother and other members of his family, according toAtlanta news station WSB-TV. He then skipped town a month before the game.
A man who was wanted in a $1 million Super Bowl ticket scam in Georgia has been arrested in California thanks to one quick-thinking teenager.
His family told WSB-TV that Shah may have been experiencing a mid-life crisis and reported him missing in December. His wife, Bhavi Shah, filed for divorce in January.
Investigators were able to track his movements through Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Las Vegas, but it was one 19-year-old in Temecula, California who eventually lead police to Shah’s whereabouts.
Ketan Shah, accused of collecting nearly $1 million dollars in a Super Bowl ticket scam, was brought down by a teenager in California.
David Halliday was working at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California, as a spa concierge on Tuesday when he encountered a difficult and demanding customer.
Halliday told San Diego news station KGTV that Shah demanded service ahead of other guests and that “he came in with his girlfriend. ”
“Just from the offset, he seemed a bit different from the usual guests we have in the spa,” he told the outlet.
Halladay was also put off to learn Shah was paying in all cash. The 19-year-old also had a gut feeling that he had seen Shah somewhere before, so he Googled his name, KGTV reported.
The search resulted in multiple stories of Shah and his alleged ticket scam, and that’s when Halliday realized he had seen Shah on his local news. He informed security at the casino, and they altered the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, who arrested Shah at the scene.
Shah is currently being held in Riverside County Jail. He’scharged with one count of theft by conversion and is expected to extradited back to Georgia, the Atlanta Journal-Constitutionreported.
