My Fake Sports Illustrated Job

A young boy and his father use fake media credentials in the 90's to score exclusive, sit-down interviews with Michael Jordan, Mario Lemieux and more. NYC comedian Gary Vider confesses the details of a five-year scam that routinely got him into the Madison Square Garden locker rooms and rubbing elbows with some of the most iconic athletes of all time.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Trickeration, a production of I Heart Radio, and
welcome back to the Trickeration Podcast, the number one podcast
about deception and sports pranks, scheme scams, trick plays, elaborate hoaxes.
If they happened in sports, we are here to talk
about it. Quick reminder to join the Trickeration Nation on

(00:24):
Instagram at Trickeration. And a big thank you to the
commenter who recently pointed out that trickeration isn't even a
real word. You, sir, are definitely getting the show. This week.
We've got a great one, a story about a father
and son duo who infiltrated the world's most famous arena
to reb elbows with the world's most famous athlete. Al
Right onto the show. So I met Mario Lemieu, John Elway,

(00:52):
Joe Namath Um Shack and Scottie Pippen, Jeremy roenick Um.
I'm trying to remember who else, Michael Joe it In.
That's Gary Veter, a stand up comedian who, as a
kid in New York in the nineties, had a front
row seat for a five year basketball and hockey scam.
I was so involved in loving sports, and we'd wind

(01:12):
up going to the games without a ticket. And I
didn't just go to the games. I also was in
the locker rooms and interacting and it was the best time.
And this is the story of my dad and how
we conned our way into professional sporting events. I lived
in a town in Long Island where my parents did okay,

(01:32):
but not like superbly great. It was the three season.
I love the Knicks. I love the Rangers, the Rangers
who were just getting good. And you know, the Knicks
were just the Knicks. It's what everybody holds onto right now.
So by dad and I was started going to Madison
Square Garden. You know, I always wanted to meet players
after the game. We would wait outside games and pretty

(01:54):
much get rejected. Instead of us just waiting behind those
barricades waiting for the athletes to come out of the top.
All my dad I was like, oh, let's try and
take it one step further and get into the locker room.
So I was just, you know, hey, I'm fo it.
That sounds pretty good to me. My father, manny uh.
Everything wasn't the most honest thing that he was always doing.
I mean I remember who as a kid somebody bumped

(02:15):
my dad. It was a thunderbender and you know, and
he's wearing a neck phrase until he would be able
to file his insurance claim and then make some money.
And was your dad also using deceit in however he
made a living? Sure? I mean, you know, he was
dishonest from every business opportunity that he had, whether it
would be at a furniture store where he was the owner,

(02:38):
he wouldn't send people their furniture, which doesn't seem like
a great scam, but people don't necessarily know where to
go when they pay for furniture and they don't receive it,
and then it's like you file a huge legal battle
over a five hundred dollar couch. So it's like these
things where my dad would test the limits. So what
other kinds of scams would he do? I mean, he
don't pay phones. He would claim that he work for

(03:00):
a T and T and then he installed them in
a store like Toys r US and then he would
collect the money from that. My dad was quick with
everything that he talked about and knew the lingo of
what to say, and then was able to get access
to various places under different assumptions of identity. So tell
me about how the Madison Square Garden scam work. When

(03:20):
did this all start? When I was in the beginning,
like around fourth grade, I was a subscriber to Sports
Illosiator for Kids. My dad had the idea like, oh,
I could say my son works for Sports Illociator for
Kids as a reporter and I'm a photographer, and that
would get us access to games. He would call Madison

(03:42):
Square Garden and tell them that Sports Allociator for Kids
is coming today and if you can, please, you know,
leave two press passes the side. And he wouldn't say
that he was my father, and we'd wind up going
to the games without a ticket. And this is of
course pre internet, so if somebody wanted to look it
up or even go as far as make a phone call,
it kind of wound up being a thing where it's

(04:02):
too many layers where they're like, oh, why would I
doubt that Sports Illustreet for Kids is coming. I'd get
out of school around like one o'clock and my dad
would always be waiting for me in his blue Chevy Caprice,
which is an undercover cop car. Of course he wasn't
a undercover cop. And from there we would head into

(04:25):
the city and it's like, you know, you see a
car that's unmarked and you're like, oh, that's a cop car.
You're gonna move over to the side, you know, just
let this car pass because it's a cop And my
dad took full advantage of that, and we always go
to a camera store and he'd pick up, you know,
some sports film. My dad was actually a good photographer

(04:49):
and he had a big lands so looked apart. Also
wore a vest, you know, to carry film, and uh,
we would show up to the garden and they have
our press passes waiting. I was never derogated. Nobody questioned
our authenticity of what we were doing. Everything was on
point and believable. And was your dad worried about getting caught?

(05:12):
It seems like you could have been a problem if
he's busted for trespassing and then what happens to you.
That's one of the things my dad always told me
was that you see a father and a kid, people
aren't gonna say, hey, you're running a scam because you're
gonna make the father look bad in front of his kid.
You kind of let it go by. If it was
just him trying to sneak in, he could wind up
being in jail, but having your kid, I think they're

(05:33):
a little bit more lenient, you know, a little bit
more of a slap on the wrist. And I think
he knew that where that he was able to work
that to his advantage. Would be there for shoot around.
My dad he was on the floor. I mean, my
dad was constantly on the floor. The only times we
would be together would be intermission. He'd come and find me,
or I'd go to him. As a you know, nine

(05:55):
to basically thirteen year old, I would be walking around
the garden pretty much by myself out I'd go around
and just try and find an empty chair. And since
I was a kid, nobody told the kid to move,
and you know, if they weren't good seats, I would
be up in the press box. I was able to
get into the locker room and get autographs and interview
the players. I was just so in love with the
fact that I was able to go to these games

(06:16):
and witness things that people weren't able to see. And
at the next games, I could go on the court
for a minute and arranger games and go on the
ice after the games. There would be no problem because
I had to press task. I was there so often
that it was kind of just a normal thing for me.
So putting the illegality aside, this actually seems like a

(06:37):
really nice thing that your dad was doing for you. Well.
I think he enjoyed the fact that he could go
to these games too, So it wasn't just hey, I'm
doing this for my kid, because hey, like I said,
during those games, we wouldn't even be sitting next to
each other. But I think the rush of the overall
con was kind of what he enjoyed, and the fact

(06:58):
that he was able to share that with me. My
dad was trying to show me the world in his
lens of Oh, you could go to this stuff and
you could do this, just you might have to make
some things up along the way. In his way, he
was kind of showing me up to him that's how
life works. And how far did you guys push this thing?
I mean, were you just doing fake interviews or did
you ever take things even further? One of the things

(07:20):
we did was a lot of times I would go
in the visitors locker room where the next locker room,
and my dad would just he'd walk out with sneakers
or hockey sticks. Remember, it was a world Cup of
Hockey and the USA played Russia. And during that game,
I went to the Russian locker room and my dad
lifted the hockey stick from there. Another time, at the

(07:43):
Orlando Magic game, he took a pair of Dennis Scott's shoes.
That was just like laying there. In his fifth game
after returning to the NBA in after his Minor League
baseball sabbatical, mj returns to MSG that particular day when
the the next we're playing the Bulls. I mean, every
celebrity was there and uh, we're, you know, taking pictures

(08:06):
with everybody. Uh Bill Murray and um Tom broke off
and Diane Sawyer was there, and then we took a
bunch of pictures with Sidney Crawford. But you know, I
mean I was there to see Jordan's that was like
the thing. And I wound up sitting in the third
row and my dad he was on the floor. In

(08:32):
one of the most iconic games in Jordan's career, he
puts on a show for New York fans, finishing with
fifty points in a Bulls win. I remember from that
particular game the actual sports illustrated for kids were also there,
and we have to figure out, like, how are we
going to get into the locker room without the security
guards knowing that. Now there's two of us that are here.

(08:55):
By the way, Sports illustop for kids, there are adults.
They never had kids to be porters. I think they
do now, but back then they never did. After the game,
you know, everybody was trying to get into the locker room.
My dad and I we rushed there, and he knew
the security guards because one thing he would always do
is he would always take pictures with the court in
the back of them, and when he would see them,
he would give them these nice pictures of them and

(09:18):
they always appreciate that. And they let us go and
we were able to get into the Bulls locker room.
But when they got into the Bulls locker room, Jordan
was nowhere to be found. My dad must have talked
to somebody to find out where Michael was and they
went to tell him that, oh, there's a kid here
from Sports Illustrated. You know, he's ten years old. Can

(09:38):
you talk to him for a minute. Manny and Gary's
request for a meeting with his Royal Airness was granted.
It was like a private locker room. It was just
him and Phil Jackson and some of the assistant coaches.
There were no other reporters. I was the only one
that was there, and uh, I was like shaking. So
I asked him one question, what's your favorite food? And
he said to stay And I mean it kills me

(09:59):
this day. But I was too scared to ask him
for an autograph. My dad snapped some pictures and he, uh,
he was Yeah, he was nice. One thing I remember
is that I had feelers on and he was just like,
you know, you should go get some nikes. And I mean,
now I would have just been like, YO, give me yours,
but I didn't say that. And uh, that was just

(10:22):
an awesome, you know, awesome experience. It was just, you know,
every kid's dream. So who was the second biggest athlete
you've met? So I met Mary l Amie, who is
my favorite hockey player and who I think is the
best ever. My dad pretended to be maryl amieuse chauffeur.

(10:44):
He called up the hotel that he was staying and
he was a Marriott hotel in Long Island. Had they
called up and said that he was a chauffeur, found
out what time he was going to be down in
the lobby, and my dad called later in that day
to tell him, at hey, this is blah blah blah
from Sports Illustrated. If you could come down at like
seven thirty am, you know, do our interview. And so

(11:07):
Mary Lemieu came down and my dad reserved the whole
banquet hall in this Marriott, where I sat in the
chair right next to Mary Lemiu and I asked a
bunch of questions. My dad actually videotaped it, and after
the interview, I had two packing cars like right on
the table, and he signed up both and then I
walked him out to his car, where it was just

(11:28):
like Mary Lemiu and I talking. You know, that's like
a surreal experience where I'm like, did that even happen?
Why did the scam eventually end? I got older, And
I mean, yeah, it came down to not wanting to
lie about you know, who I was. It was just
something that I felt that I didn't want to do anymore.

(11:48):
I mean I did it for about four or five
years and it was just kind of ran its course.
So in hindsight, how do you view this whole experience?
Was this a positive or a negative thing? I think
It's positive because I got me to see the world
in a different way that I would have been able

(12:10):
to see it. You know, I never would have been
able to interact with Michael Jordan's never would have been
able to meat shack. Yes, it was deceitful and how
I got there, but it kind of showed me, Hey,
you know I can have a good life and I
could be around these people and you know, I don't
want to say him equal to Michael Jordan, but I
could sit down next to him in and talk to him.

(12:35):
All Right. That is it for today. A big thanks
to Gary Veter for sharing his story, and for more
from Gary, check out his comedy special Verter to Las Vegas,
which you can get on his website Gary Veter dot com.
V I D E R. And a quick disclaimer, if
you are a parent considering using your child in a
scam of disorder, any sort of scam, I highly encourage it.
It really helps. As Gary said, of what you're getting

(12:58):
serious penalties. So this is a great idea if you've
got a young child, and real quick. If you're liking
the show in general, please take a minute to rate
and review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you do
this kind of stuff, and dig through the archives for
apps you may have missed. And as we do every week,
we check in with the legend Chris, Matt, Doug Russo, Chris,
how do we do this week? Maddie, good job, keep

(13:19):
up to good work. Thanks Chris. All right, talk to
you guys next week. Triggeration is a production of I
heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
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