Last week Brian and I were offered great seats to the Lakers game in LA from his parents. Brian of course being the huge fan that he is accepted the tickets. We booked our flight, arranged a babysitter for the kids and flew to LA. Our flight was for 7AM and we got into Bakersfield at 12:30. We got to see his parents for a few minutes before we needed to leave to the game.
When we got to LA we had a message from the other 2 people that were coming to the game with us were not going to make it. We called Brian's sister to see if they would somehow be able to come. I went into the Staples Center to and waited for Brian while he figured out what to do. Shortly after we got the call they would not be able to make it either. While I was on the phone with Brian telling him that Missy and Jonathon could not come a man came up to him and asked if he had any tickets. He told him he did and then started to talk to me again. I then heard Brian talking to someone else, there was a bunch of muffled noises, the phone dropped, and then I was hung up on. I was a little confused. I tried to call him back about 15 times. I went to go outside to find him but they told me once I left I could not re-enter. Finally Brian picked his phone up. He told me he would not be making it into the game. I thought he was joking. He then told me that "they" (I did not know who they were) had his tickets and would not even let him hold the phone to talk to me. They were holding the phone up to his ear for him.
I found a nice guy who unscanned my ticket for me so I could leave and come back if I wanted and I went outside to find Brian. He was of course no where in sight so I asked a nearby security guard. He told me that it all sounded really weird. He said they don't arrest for scalping unless there is an obvious exchange of money and usually then they just ticket them. He took me to an officer down the street who called to see if Brian was at the jail....he was.
I luckily had put the keys to the car in my bag before Brian and I split up. I went to the police station which was about 10 minutes away from the Staples Center. This was the most rundown street I have ever seen. It was lined with homeless people. In fact everything within a few block radius was lined with homeless. The stairs to the police station had people camped out all over them. I was a little scared to get out of my car. I held onto my bag for dear life and went in as fast as I could without looking too scared. I'm sure they saw right past it though. Did I mention I was also the only white person on the street?
I spoke to an officer who was very nice and let him know that it was all a misunderstanding. He said that sounded pretty valid and would see what he could do. After about 45 minutes of waiting he said that the supervisor was the arresting officer and he couldn't do anything but he would keep trying. Several officers spoke in my behalf. The supervisor came out and asked me where I had gotten the tickets. I told him that our family had season tickets and we had just flown in for the game. He refused to believe me and started being a jerk. I told him to call the Staples Center and ask. He told me he had reason to believe that Brian either bought the tickets or was going to sell them. I reminded him that neither were illegal. Brian and I could see each other through a long room and several sheets of glass but I tried to keep him updated on the score as much as possible. I went back to the game for the 4th quarter knowing there was nothing I could do.
When the game was over it was of course dark and the street to the police station had doubled in the amount of people that were there before. When I got out of the car I had several larger black women (and one very small lady) standing by my side asking what a white rich girl thinks she is doing in her white rich car in their neighborhood. I wanted to tell them I was not rich, just middle class and the car was my mother in-laws but I didn't dare. They came in and out of the police station several times to yell at me and every 30 minutes when I had to go move my car to make sure it didn't get towed. This really scary lady came in and was screaming at the top of her lungs and threw her drink at me. A nice man asked the officer to do something about it and they tazered her for me. What nice guys.
They moved Brian to a different location to get him booked, fingerprinted, mug shot, the whole works. This same nice guy that stood up for me had a friend who had also been arrested for scalping led me to the other location and parked his car, and walked me into the jail so I didn't have to walk alone. There was no parking within 2 blocks and the street was just as bad as the one we had just left. This was near 11 pm. My phone was dead.
Finally at around 12 they let Brian call me (I begged them to let my have Brian's and they agreed). They told me it would be a couple more hours before they got him into they system and cleared him to leave. The officers at the front desk felt really bad for me and they thought the entire thing was stupid as well. They ordered me Chinese Food, bought me and drink and got in their car to follow me to mine so I could park in police parking so I wouldn't have to walk outside alone. They also kept calling the jail for me to see if they could hurry the process up at all. Finally at 3 AM they let him go. We got back to Bakersfield at 5:20. My flight left at 11:30. It was one very long day.
Brian had a court date scheduled for June 19th but they let him move it up to this Tuesday so he is still in California waiting to see what happens. They did tell us if he was proven innocent we could have our tickets back and the $5 they took from his wallet. That's nice of them..
