Elmhurst Beer Fest Organizers Fear Fraud: Police

ELMHURST, IL – In late June, organizers of the Elmhurst Craft Beer Fest worried that a company was fraudulently selling tickets for the Sept. 16 event. But police said they found nothing illegal.

The Elmhurst History Museum, which holds the event as a fundraiser, told police about a page by Event Tickets Center, a secondary market ticket broker like StubHub or SeatGeek.

Patch obtained the police report through a public records request.

On the Event Tickets Center website, craft beer fest tickets were sold for $137 each, including $20 in fees, police said. As of Tuesday, no tickets were available on the site.

Working with the Ticket Tailor website, the museum is selling tickets ranging in price from $20 to $55.

Police said they found no fraud with Event Tickets Center, but Better Business Bureau reviews for the company were not good. Police said it was legal to sell legitimately purchased tickets on the secondary market, but such businesses add fees to the consumer.

According to the report, no one has come forward to report being defrauded.

In response to a Patch inquiry, Adam Young with Event Tickets Center said in an email, "You are reporting on us having an ad up for a short period of time because a seller posted a listing. This ad got a total of 8 clicks which were likely all (from) your side doing their 'investigations.' We have never had a sale for this event. It is pretty irresponsible to report on a fraud claim that a police report was made for when there is absolutely nothing fraudulent nor illegal. You should have the event check their resale policy as it may be illegal in the state of Illinois. Great reporting. I can only assume this is a joke."

A little while later, Young told Patch he was directing the company to make a donation to the museum.

In an interview, Dave Oberg, the museum's executive director, said he welcomed the donation. He said what happened before was a misunderstanding and that he learned more about the process.

At the time, Oberg said the museum received reports about the website selling tickets before fest organizers even started selling them.

"There were no tickets yet," he said.