San Francisco man cons Vikings out of $70,000 for luxury suite

It appears that NFL teams are not the only beneficiaries of outrageous ticket prices for gridiron games.

In fact, the Minnesota Vikings found themselves victim of a scheme perpetrated by a San Francisco man to con the team out of five figures.

The story starts prior to the 2018 season. Daniel Escamilla had signed a contract to rent a luxury suite for the team’s season-opening September 9 game against the San Francisco 49ers at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The only problem here is that Escamilla used checks written off a closed bank account to pay for the suites. Once Vikings authorities contacted the now-fugitive, the story took a turn.

“Escamilla said he was sorry, then preceded to write another $225,000 in checks to the team to rent luxury suites for several other games,” a local CBS News affiliate in Minnesota reported.

The Vikings ultimately found out that those checks were also written off a closed account. After a quick investigation, the team learned that Escamilla had run the same scam in a different state.

In fact, the man had rented a luxury apartment near U.S. Bank Stadium in the lead up to the game. Once he threw a lavish party, Escamilla departed the residence without paying rent or even a security deposit.

Escamilla is currently on the lam with a warrant having been issued for his arrest. Meanwhile, the Vikings say they lost a cool $70,000 over the scam.

Outside of the outright forgery here, we have one question. Who still accepts paper checks in the year 2019?

An editor here at Sportsnaut. Contributor at Forbes. Previous bylines include Bleacher Report, Yahoo!, SB Nation. Heard on ESPN ... More about Vincent Frank
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