It was an old scam. And a petty thief by the name of Alan Carter McDonald had been duping strangers with some version of it for years, police said.

Mr. McDonald would tell people he met on the street that he worked for WXDX-FM, 105.9 "the X," and offer them concert tickets, flat-screen TVs and other prizes. All they needed to do to collect the purported freebies was pay cash up front to cover shipping costs.

He pleaded guilty yesterday to pulling off the prize scam on 14 separate occasions around the city from June 2006 to September 2007.

The 58-year-old former steel mill worker from Baldwin Borough got an average of about $127 from his victims. Individual "prize winners" handed over from $20 to $170. All but one of the victims were male.

"He's actually pretty smart and he's personable. He'd walk up to these strangers and ask them for money," said his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Sumner Parker.

When confronted about his history by Pittsburgh police Detective Allen Flemm, who works with a plainclothes unit, Mr. McDonald confessed last year that he was guilty of theft by deception in several of the cases, but was offended that one of the victims accused him of outright robbery.

"If they didn't want to give him the money, he'd just walk away," Mr. Parker said. "He never took stuff. It was always handed to him."

Assistant District Attorney Lisa Mantella reduced the robbery count to theft, in a plea agreement in which Mr. McDonald also admitted to possessing a small amount of heroin and stealing a foot-long turkey hoagie from a Giant Eagle.

Allegheny County Judge David R. Cashman sentenced him to consecutive terms of two years' probation on each of the theft counts and ordered him to submit to drug screening and pay $1,775 restitution.

Mr. McDonald apologized to the court, explaining, "Since I lost my job I had a history of depression ... and drug abuse. I don't consider myself a bad person. I consider myself a decent person. I've just had some problems."

After the defendant left the courtroom, the judge expressed surprise at how little Mr. McDonald had swindled from his victims.

Records show he had 20 additional theft by deception cases in Allegheny County from 1983 to 1998. Police said he'd used the same scam before, posing as an employee for other radio stations.

Mr. McDonald's sister, Ruth Bedeian, confirmed the low yields on the scam. She wrote in a letter to Judge Anthony Mariani, the judge originally assigned to the cases, that her brother never earned much in his petty thefts and that "they have been acts of stupidity and desperation sometimes related to drugs and sometimes related to poverty."

She also said he was "musically talented" and had "a warm sense of humor" but was scarred at a young age by the deaths of his mother and older brother.

John Rohm, regional vice president for Clear Channel, which owns WXDX, said he'd heard of a few scams of this sort in his 30 years in radio.

He advised people to "be suspicious" of offers that seem fishy, ask for ID and "use the same precaution you'd use when anyone asks you for money."

He said WXDX, a modern rock/alternative rock station, gives away all prizes from the station, so there never is a shipping cost. Anyone in doubt about a prize should feel free to contact the station and ask for information, he said.