Ames Man Among Several Who Say They Were Duped Over Super Bowl Tickets

Football is just a game. Even a monumental showdown like the Super Bowl. But the biggest of the big competitions in our country can make fans vulnerable as they chase after a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

That appears to be the case with more than a dozen people, some of whom say they paid thousands of dollars for Super Bowl tickets to this week's contest but never received them.

One of the people is an Ames businessman who told the Des Moines Register he paid $180,000 for tickets to Super Bowl XLVI and several other high-profile sports events. The tickets were deeply discounted, and he planned to resell them to benefit Iowa Youth Basketball Foundation, according to the Register article.

In a copyright story by the Des Moines Register today, Dickson Jensen, an Ames real estate developer, claims he paid the money to Ranae Van Roekel, 44, of Boyden, and even provided a receipt showing a transaction for 82 Super Bowl tickets at $470.26 each for a total of $38,561.32. He also tried to purchase tickets for the Masters' golf championship and the NCAA men's basketball tournament, according to the article.

Van Roekel, who works for Get Em Now Tickets, is the subject of more than a dozen complaints coming from Iowa, Montana and Florida about people paying thousands of dollars for but not receiving Super Bowl tickets, according to a seperate report by KCAU-TV.

Both the Register and KCAU report that the Iowa Attorney General's office is investigating the complaints, but at this point it is not considered a criminal investigation.

This is from the KCAU report:

Director Of Consumer Protection Bill Brauch says, "The checks were deposited so she did have the money as far as we know. The question is what did she do with it."

(KCAU) reached out to Van Roekel's attorney Jared Weber and got this response: "I can confirm the involvement of the Iowa Attorney General's Consumer Fraud Division. Ms. Van Roekel intends to fully cooperate with the Iowa Attorney General's Office."