SAN DIEGO HOST SUPER BOWL XXII : Paramedic Uniforms Were the Ticket for 7 Slick Fans

The best scam of Super Bowl XXII? Try the paramedics caper.

While the hopeful were bargaining with scalpers to get a ticket to the game, seven Redskin fans bluffed their way into San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium dressed as paramedics.

Wearing surgical gowns obtained by a friend, who sneaked them out of a hospital, and stethoscopes fashioned from airline stereo headphones provided by a sympathetic stewardess, the Magnificent Seven persuaded ticket-takers to allow them to enter sans ducats.

The culprits were led by John Giardina. Also involved were his brothers, Paul and Mateo; cousin Damian Giardina, and friends Terry Miller, Lou Restrepo and Jim Izzo. All are in their early 30s from Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The Sneaky Seven flew into Los Angeles on Saturday and traveled to San Diego in a rented Winnebago. Donning their phony garb, they approached a particularly vulnerable-looking ticket-taker and announced: “We’re here. It’s an emergency.”

From there they ran to the bathroom, changing into their street clothes. But by the end of the third quarter, they had again pulled on the surgical outfits, intent on trying to crash the field after the game.

San Diego’s Super Bowl is not the first victim of this group’s trick. Giardina and his cohorts claim to have done it at two previous Super Bowls, including the 1986 edition in New Orleans, which pitted Chicago against New England.