Timothy Kebel: Illinois Man Scammed $100,000 Worth of Cardinals World Series Tickets Off eBay

Timothy Kebel, 34, of O'Fallon, Illinois pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud yesterday in East St. Louis federal court.

His crime? Bilking eBay vendors out of more than $100,000 worth of tickets to the 2006 NLCS and World Series. Kebel admitted that he won 31 auctions for game tickets, completed the PayPal transactions, then called up his credit card company and disputed the charges, claiming he never received the tickets in the mail.

And you thought St. Louis police officers were the only people with a devious plan to get a free trip to the World Series.

Here's the pertinent text of the press release from the Southern Illinois U.S. Attorney's Office:

Evidence introduced at the hearing demonstrated that Kebel accessed the eBay.com website to bid on online auctions in which 2006 St. Louis Cardinal NLCS and World Series tickets were offered for sale. When Kebel won an auction for game tickets, he would complete a form of payment so that the seller would ship or otherwise deliver the tickets to him. After winning the auction and receiving the tickets, Kebel would dispute the charges with his credit card company by falsely alleging that he did not receive the tickets that were purchased and received. The scheme allowed Kebel to obtain tickets that were valued in excess of $100,000 at no cost to him, through fraud, and then resell the tickets for financial gain. Kebel participated in 131 internet auctions through the eBay.com website, using alias names and utilizing 46 different email addresses.

Kebel now faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

If he was in the stands at Busch Stadium for Game 5, was the crime worth the time?