PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A 28-year-old Philadelphia man has been convicted of receiving stolen property.  And not just any stolen property: sixteen Phillies tickets for the mayor’s box at Citizens Bank Park.

The tickets, valued at more than $80 each, were taken during a burglary of the home of the chief of staff to Philadelphia city councilwoman Joan Krajewski, and defendant Jason Hilbert tried to sell them for $30 each to a man at a gas station.

But police had been notified, and Hilbert was arrested in a sting.

Prosecutor Lisa Myers says she had to prove that Hilbert, who was not charged with the burglary, knew he was selling a book of stolen tickets.

“I think, frankly, selling Phillies tickets — being a World Series team, as I indicated in my closing — that it is absolutely unbelievable that anybody would be selling them for 30 dollars, particularly the Emc-squared box — the mayor’s box,” she told KYW Newsradio afterward.  “Thirty bucks is too much of a deal, too good to be true.  Those were hot tickets in more than one sense — certainly stolen.”

But Hilbert says he bought the tickets from a buddy in a bar and still maintains he did not know the tickets were stolen.

Hilbert was sentenced to one year of probation.

Reported by Tony Hanson, KYW Newsradio 1060