A former Virginia Tech custodian stole 67 tickets to Hokie football games earlier this year and re-sold some of them, police said.

C. Mack Price, 31, of Roanoke was living in Blacksburg and working at the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center in September when the tickets went missing from the office of Tech's alumni association, said Tech police Detective George Jackson.

Price was named by a group of people who used some of the stolen tickets to get into the Georgia Tech game just days after the tickets were reported missing.

Jackson said replacement tickets were printed and allocated by the alumni association, who then provided police with the names of people who should have the tickets.

Armed with the list of names and a seating chart of the stolen tickets, officers working the Georgia Tech game were on the lookout for anyone with those tickets, Jackson said.

"We were very fortunate to get a handle on it as quickly as we did," he said.

He said information provided by the alumni association was invaluable.

Seven people showed up to the Georgia Tech game with stolen tickets but none of them knew the items had been stolen, Jackson said. After police spoke with the buyers, they were escorted from the game.

The following Monday, Jackson spoke with Price, who he said was very cooperative. Price still had the majority of the tickets -- more than 50 of them -- and turned them in to police, Jackson said.

Price was charged Saturday with grand larceny. The tickets had a combined value of $2,680.

Jackson said police waited until the end of football season to charge Price because the investigation was ongoing and he wanted to see if any of the other tickets turned up.

"We deal with stolen tickets from time to time in some fashion," but never in such a high number, Jackson said.