ATHENS — Jeff Cook, the ticket broker who left dozens of Georgia football fans without Notre Dame tickets, was arrested by the Putnam County sheriff’s office on Friday, two media outlets were reporting. And that might be just the beginning of Cook’s troubles.
Police executed a warrant at Cook’s house in Eatonton on Friday morning and arrested him, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told 11Alive.com. Sills said Cook was charged with selling sports tickets without a license and advertising sports tickets for sale without posting a license number and his advertisements. He was released later on Friday after posting a $2,000 bond.
More charges could be forthcoming pending the completion of an ongoing investigation, the report said. Neither Sills nor Detective Chris Harper, the officer in charge of the investigation, returned calls Saturday seeking comment.
Regardless, Cook is likely to incur other legal ramifications. Latrelle Kling, an estate sales planner from Oxford, said she plans to take legal action against Cook after she did not receive the two tickets for which she paid Cook $550.
Like many of the other customers Cook did not deliver to, Ms. Kling said she went ahead and made the trip with her husband and was able to secure other tickets. But now she plans to retain an attorney and seek damages from Cook.
“I’m pursuing it from two different avenues,” Kling said. “I haven’t even called my credit card company yet because I want to remain damaged. I’m going after him for the trip and damages. … I mean, if he’d just told us he wasn’t going to deliver I would’ve understood. But on the Friday before the game I got an email from him telling me he was going to send me tickets before game time. I mean, the guy is a con.”
Jim Develvis, another Georgia fan, also didn’t receive his tickets from Cook but made the trip anyway. He said he “lucked up” and acquired two for $300 apiece on Eddy Street Commons in South Bend, Ind., the day before the game.
Develvis, too, said he was “going for the cost of the trip.
“I will lawyer up,” he said.
Cook, who is listed on LinkedIn as president and owner of All Sports Tickets, was able to deliver on “hundreds” of tickets, according to what he told some of his customers. Athens’ Chip Folendore received the two he paid $1,100 for on the Tuesday before the game. Folendore said he was promised them by Aug. 30.
UGA received only 8,000 tickets from Notre Dame for the game, which the Bulldogs won 20-19 last Saturday. More than 30,000 fans made it into Notre Dame Stadium, paying from $500 to $1,200 for tickets on the secondary market.
NOTE OF CORRECTION: The name and hometown of Latrelle Kling has been changed. She was misidentified in the original report.