Man found hanged after fans link him to ticket scam
BY BRIAN McCOLLUM
FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER
Nickelback performs Tuesday at the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston. A Troy man, who some fans say sold them counterfeit tickets to Wednesday's Nickelback concert, was found hanged late Wednesday. (KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/DFP)
Police are investigating a concert ticket scam that bilked about 100 fans at Wednesday's Nickelback show at DTE Energy Music Theatre.
An Oakland County Sheriff's Office spokesman said a Troy man was sought Thursday in connection with the scam.
Police would not name the suspect, but disgruntled fans pinpointed Kyle Branum as the man selling fake tickets for Wednesday's concert. Branum was found hanged in his Troy home late Wednesday night, according to the Troy Police Department.
Before word of his death emerged late Thursday, Branum had been publicly fingered by angry fans who had given him hundreds of dollars expecting to be admitted to the sold-out show. Many bilked fans wrote angry postings on the online classified board Craigslist, where the ticket transactions had been initiated.
DTE Energy Music Theatre staffers collected more than 100 of the fake tickets Wednesday evening, said venue spokesman Jeff Corey.
Katie Jennings of Sterling Heights was among those turned away at the DTE turnstiles because of the invalid tickets, which were flagged when gate attendants scanned the printed bar code.
"They pointed to a big stack of papers and said, 'All those people had the same ticket you did,' " said Jennings, 24. "Basically, he was making copies and selling them."
Jennings had searched the Internet for secondhand tickets after learning the Nickelback show was officially sold out. She contacted Branum via e-mail after spotting an ad he had posted on Craigslist. He provided his cell phone number and arranged to meet at a Walgreens parking lot in Sterling Heights, Jennings said.
There she met Branum and paid him $112 total for four tickets. They appeared to be legitimate, general-admission lawn tickets, Jennings said, similar to tickets she had purchased via Ticketmaster in the past.
In fact, they turned out to be photocopies of the same ticket.