A New Jersey woman who's allegedly scammed at least 10 people out of thousands of dollars in a fake NFL ticket scheme has disappeared, and police are now looking for her.
The suspect had been offering people a deal they couldn't refuse, according to Franklin Borough police: tickets to Jets and Giants games in a luxury suite with food and drink and field access. For Michael Daniello and his girlfriend Chelsea Hults, it sounded like the kind of deal they couldn't say no to.
"Exclusive NFL packages, VIP parking, on-field access, buffet, this, that and another thing," said Daniello. "I mean, it was too good to be true. And we should've went with that."
The alleged scammer, 32-year-old Alicia Pullozzi, claimed she was selling the package deals for Jets and Giants games through her husband's company, the Institute of Culinary Education.
Daniello and Hults forked out $300; they say Pullozzi seemed legit: she kept in touch on Facebook and through text messages. But when game time got closer, she disappeared.
"Oct. 19, I text her, 'Hey, just checking on those tickets,'" said Daniello. "Oct. 20, 'Good morning, just following up on those tickets.' Nothing. She disappeared."
Daniello went to the police and soon discovered he was not the only one who got scammed.
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"As of this minute, we have about 10 victims and it continues every day," said Franklin Borough Police Det. Nevin Matessich. "We get more complaints of people that were scammed."
One woman gave Pullozzi $1,600 for a group of tickets, according to Matessich -- coaches from a local peewee football league were planning on taking kids to their first NFL game.
"They were kind of disappointed to find out not only did they lose a few hundred dollars, but the kids really were let down, and they're not gonna be able to attend those games that they paid for," said Matessich.
Investigators say Pullozzi has likely gotten away with nearly $10,000. Now they can't find the woman, who also goes by Kurtyka and Kaegi and has been convicted of this sort of scam before.
They're also investigating her involvement in a possible fraudulent GoFundMe page. And they're looking to see if her husband was in on it. His company never gave out football tickets, and he was fired for unknown reasons, according to police -- and now he's missing, too.
"She got us," said Hults. "She might as well have just broken into our house and stolen something from our house."
