INDIANAPOLIS — A central Indiana man is accused of selling fake Indianapolis 500 season passes.
“I don’t think anything like this allegation has happened before,” President of Indianapolis Motor Speedway Doug Boles said.
Court documents allege the actions of Fred Bear Jr. cost the Indianapolis Motor Speedway more than $150,000.
The documents say the facility was allegedly forced to refund customers because the fake parking passes prevented real customers from parking and required them to be redirected.
“You need to get it through the Indianapolis Motor Speedway directly or through our secondary platform. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway guarantees that if you buy those secondary tickets on that platform, you know that they are legitimate,” Boles said.
Court documents detail the investigation, and how Bear allegedly obtained a legitimate pass from someone working security at IMS. Court documents say Bear allegedly paid a local printer to make the counterfeit copies.
Court Documents say it was more than parking passes. Documents show Snake Pit Wristbands and Carb Day Passes also ended up on the secondary market.
The passes allegedly were moved through an Ohio company, which re-sold the counterfeit passes through third-party sites including Seat Geek, StubHub, and Vivid Seats
Court documents allege all items sold for more than face value.
“If people are going to come to our city, or if people are going to try and buy tickets, we have to make sure that the marketplace is safe, and that people aren’t getting ripped off,” said Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears.
Bear now faces multiple felonies including theft and counterfeiting.
“Understand this, IMPD is going to remain committed to ensuring that anybody who has been a victim of fraud, or a scam of this nature, is going to have our full efforts to try and bring the individual responsible to justice,” IMPD Officer Drew Brown said.
Boles stresses there is one place to buy tickets you can trust for the Indianapolis 500 season.
“We just encourage people that if you see something that seems weird and somebody is trying to sell you something that seems weird, let us know so we can follow up on it,” Boles said.
If you need details on where to buy Indy 500 passes, click here.
WRTV has also obtained court documents showing Bear allegedly stole suite tickets and was involved in money laundering activities when the College Football National Championship game came to Indy in 2022.
