BENSALEM, Pa.—The lawyer for Susan Finkelstein, the woman arrested Tuesday by Pennsylvania police for allegedly promising sex in exchange for World Series tickets to see her beloved Phillies, says the cops made a big mistake. Bill Brennan, the attorney, says the undercover cop who made the arrest got the wrong signal from his client, who was just flirting with him in order to get a better deal.
"[She] and her husband were looking for a chance to go to the World Series and she wound up in handcuffs," Brennan said. "You have a die-hard Phillies fan that uses a colloquial phrase and says, 'I'll do anything for tickets,' and she's arrested? It's beyond the pale."
Meanwhile, the gods of baseball have smiled on Finkelstein anyway. Fox News reports, “A local radio station gave Susan Finkelstein, 43, and her husband tickets to Game 3 of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees, DJ Chio from Wired 96.5 confirmed to MyFoxPhilly.com.”
The hoo-haw started when Finkelstein posted an ad on Cragslist, desperately seeking tickets.
"DESPERATE BLOND (sic) NEEDS WS TIX (Philadelphia)," the ad apparently read. "Diehard Phillies fan - gorgeous tall buxom blonde - in desperate need of two World Series Tickets. Price negotiable - I'm the creative type! Maybe we can help each other! S."
Police from Bensalem, Pa., apparently with nothing better to do than stake out what could have been a very dangerous predator, contacted Finkelstein and arranged to have an undercover officer meet her at a local tavern, according to the Burlington County Times.
“Police said Finkelstein didn't particularly look like a diehard Phillies fan when she met them, lacking the typical Phillies regalia,” reports the paper. “And she wasn't chit chatty about baseball, offering no predictions on tonight's pitching duel between Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia or anything else.”
According to Bensalem Public Safety Director Fred Harran, "It was really quick. She just said how much of a Phillies fan she was and that this was the first time she ever did anything like that."
Harran said the two negotiated for two tickets, for her and her husband, with sex with two men as the price. She was then handcuffed and arrested on a charge of prostitution.
"While it's tempting to discuss the ridiculousness of the situation, I'm afraid it may not help me in the long run until this is resolved legally," Finkelstein wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. Later the same day, a post on her FaceBook page said she was "wondering about the integrity of our 'police.'"
According to Harran, who said the arresting officer was as “baffled as the rest of the media" over her alleged actions, Finkelstein will be charged in a summons through the mail with a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to two years in prison.
Not the worst sentence ever handed down, assuming the Phillies were to somehow win the Series.
[Ed. Note: The male writer of this story, a New Yorker stuck in California, has offered to kiss the same arresting officer on the lips in exchange for one bad ticket to the Series.]
