Full Throttle

A man is charged with theft in connection with what Austin police describe as a major mail theft case. Paul DeJesus is accused of stealing $178,750 worth of tickets from a local stock car race promoter.

A company representative of Throttle Productions (no relation to this blog - ed) saw the tickets listed for sale on Craigslist.

Austin (TX) police recovered the box of more than 5,000 stolen NASCAR tickets for the Allstate Texas Racefest.

“The tickets weren’t being released to the public, so for someone to have tickets - they had stolen tickets,” said Austin Detective Deek Moore.

“The best I can come up with is that he intercepted the delivery of that package,” said Moore.

At news conference Tuesday at APD headquarters, detectives, US Postal Service Inspectors and the race promoter described how they set up an undercover sting operation to catch the thief.

“We set up a deal with the individual and bought some of those stolen tickets,” said Moore.

Tavo Hellmund - managing partner of Full Throttle Productions, which is promoting the Allstate Texas Racefest - said they were prepared in case something like this happened.

“We knew to do some safeguard things on our tickets. Things no one would know,” he said.

Including this dimbulb (see mugshot above) who faces second degree felony theft and could face federal mail theft charges as well.

Stupid criminals, always good for a laugh or two!