New Jersey Man Arrested for Impersonating Patriots’ Legend for Ring
The question of the day: what would you do to get your hands on a Super Bowl ring from your favorite team?
A man in New Jersey he would commit a number of crimes in order to get his. He even went as far as to impersonate a close, personal friend of Tom Brady and his family.
What's unique about it, however, is that he almost got away with it.
The man in question, Scott Spina, has pled guilty pled to one count of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, according to a report from CBS Sports.
It all stems from Super Bowl LI, in 2017, which featured the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons battling for the title. Ironically, that Patriots' Super Bowl team included Albany native, running back Dion Lewis.
Anyway, the story alleges that the aforementioned Spina purchased a Super Bowl ring from a player on the Patriots, and along with the ring, was sent documents containing information for how to contact the ring manufacturer. Within the information, there was a specific department to contact for rings for family and friends, which are different from the original rings, but still valuable.
As the story asserts, Spina attempted to get rings engraved with the last name "Brady" on them, and spun a web of lies in order to do so. He was a bit too aggressive in his pursuit, and was arrested for fraud, a charge for which he will serve time in prison.
Granted, this isn't the first crime involving Super Bowl rings. Bloomberg did an entire feature story about a man by the name of Sean Murphy, who stole a number of Super Bowl rings from another Patriots' Super Bowl victory.
This one, however, required a bit more espionage, and the man that was almost Tom Brady didn't quite get out of it in time.