Police catch alleged laser culprit
— -- ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- The Detroit Lions have banned the fan who allegedly shined a laser pointer into the eyes of Bills quarterback Kyle Orton and holder Colton Schmidt during the Bills' 17-14 victory Sunday.
The fan, Mark Beslach, was cited for misdemeanor disorderly conduct and will have to pay a small fine for the action, and the season-ticket holder who gave him the ticket will have his season tickets revoked for the rest of the season. Lions team president Tom Lewand said Thursday the season-ticket holder and Beslach shared a close relationship, but he would not say if it was a father-son relationship.
"In 13 years, there's been one incident," Lewand said. "We feel like it is something that is a very serious incident, one that we've taken very seriously. We've dealt with it swiftly and with every weapon at our disposal, so to speak, and we certainly hope that the attention that we've paid to this will deter anybody who is thinking of doing this in the future and now they understand the ramifications.
"And certainly our security will be on guard looking for things like laser pointers, but also other devices that people bring to the stadium."
Beslach actually tweeted about shining the laser pointer in the eyes of Orton and Carpenter on Monday, but then his account was deleted.
"You see a green light on any of the bills players just laugh cause it's me," he tweeted.
"Got Kyle Orton complained to the ref when I got him with the laser," he wrote in another tweet.
Lewand said Beslach's tweets weren't the sole reason they were able to track him down so quickly, but it was part of how they found him.
"I certainly don't think he did himself any favors by talking about it," Lewand said.
Lewand said the citation was made by the Detroit Police Department and the city prosecutor's office. He also said the Lions' security and operations staff, along with the Detroit Police Department, NFL security and eyewitness accounts all led to the Lions tracking him down.
He said the team plans on implementing the ban through various forms, including technology such as paperless ticketing, camera monitoring systems and simple identification processes. If Beslach were to violate the ban, Lewand said they would then try to prosecute him for trespassing.
The Lions are also hoping this sends a message to their season-ticket holders that if they sell their tickets to StubHub or someone else and they cause problems, they could lose their tickets.
"The ticket is a contract between us and the ticket holder and ... the ticket holder holds up his or her end of the bargain, and we hold up our end of the bargain," Lewand said. "So once that ticket leaves your hands, you do lose control but ultimately you can be responsible for those.
"In this case, there was a much more direct nexus. Certainly every case is separate. Hopefully there aren't many more we have to use this to compare to."
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