Man posed as parking lot attendant, made nearly $2K during FC Cincinnati game, non-profit says

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Cincinnati police are asking for help to identify a man accused of scamming people out of nearly $2,000 as he posed as a parking lot attendant for an FC Cincinnati game.

Back in March, Freestore Foodbank closed the doors at their Central Parkway location, but instead of allowing the building to sit vacant, they decided to rent out the parking lot.

“We partnered with Tri-State Parking, and they said yeah, they would come in, and they’d operate it for us, and they would give us a little bit of money back,” explained Freestore Foodbank President and CEO Kurt Reiber. “So, that money we would get in would help us feed kids.”

On July 9, Reiber says the man police are now looking for arrived at their parking lot posing as a parking lot attendant ahead of the FC Cincinnati game.

“Basically, he set up fake cones and fake tickets and sold out the entire parking lot before Tri-State got there,” Reiber says. “This was probably four or five hours before the game even started.”

Employees for Tri-State Parking noticed the lot that was supposed to be empty was filled and called their managers at Tri-State Parking and Freestore Foodbank. Employees informed them a man was posing as an attendee, and when confronted by employees, he left before the police could arrive.

“Tri-State came in here and saw that the entire parking lot was full and proceeded to put tickets on the cars to let them know, hey, you’re parking in this spot we’re supposed to be parking in,” said Reiber.

Reiber said the man made nearly $2,000 in less than five hours.

“They could have probably accumulated about $1,600 in a very short period of time because my understanding is that they were selling the parking spaces for about $40 a car, and if they would have waited for Tri-State, they charge $25 a car.”

Freestore Foodbank says that money could have fed 5,000 children in Kentucky, Indiana, and Cincinnati.

Reiber asks that the man donates some of his earnings back to the non-profit and turn himself in.

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