Hamilton has been a culture-crushing Broadway success story ever since it debuted a year ago at the Public Theater, quickly becoming the most sought-after ticket in town. All of the hype and high ticket prices have attracted plenty of scalpers and thieves hoping to prey upon theater-goers willing to pay whatever it takes to see Lin-Manuel Miranda's masterpiece. But one woman who paid $350 for completely fake tickets came up with a plan to get even with scalpers.
Danielle Posner, a 29-year-old teacher, told the Post that she had bought two tickets for $175 each from a Craigslist seller, then later called to check on the validity of their codes with Ticketmaster. They came back as invalid—the tickets were fake. Posner made a complaint at the Washington Heights NYPD precinct last Friday and was all but dismissed by an officer.
"We have murders around her," the cop reportedly told her. Posner replied: "Well, he murdered my dream of going to Hamilton."
Posner reportedly turned over multiple documents as evidence of the Craigslist scam, but was dissatisfied with the cops' response. She then told them her boyfriend had responded to the same fraudulent classified ad and planned to meet up with the thief. "The NYPD agreed to step in, and 10 anti-crime unit officers were assigned to the sting," the Post reports.
After Posner ID'd the seller, officers quickly arrested the alleged counterfeiter, who has been identified as Glenn Richardson. Richardson, 28, faces four counts of possession of a forged instrument, petit larceny, and misapplication of property. He had already been arrested in 2011 for selling fake Knicks tickets.
“I was so happy,” Posner said. “Losing $350 to get somebody who has probably done this to so many people was worth it.” Last month the Times published an extensive story on Jason, a man who had been sold outdated Hamilton tickets through Craigslist. At that time, the paper reported that "since August, about five times a week, the theater must turn away people bearing fake tickets."
