Store clerks caught on camera cheating lottery customers out of winnings

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now to an i-team investigation lottery cheaters caught in the action why do you think you're in a room right now with three police officers question okay caught on camera store clerks cheating customers out of their lottery winnings but their luck runs out when they try to claim the stolen prizes the i-team's Erica Ross is live in studio with exclusive video of how these clerks are caught and what you need to know to protect your winnings Eric good evening when you ask a clerk to check your lottery ticket you expect them to be honest but as we found out that's not always the case you're here because you had a ticket that said you're a winner this is convenience store clerk Tina dole being interviewed by investigators at the lottery headquarters in Madison remember regular data are the website Westside yeah dole just can't seem to get her story straight on how she got her hands on a $5,000 winning ticket but the undercover video from a spot check conducted by the Wisconsin lottery doesn't lie good thank you but it was a winner and dole knew it showing up one week later to claim the prize you're stating that this ticket that I showed you your dole lied for 30 minutes before investigators finally confronted her a ticket that I presented to you is the ticket that you are trying to claim is a winner do you have any explanation for that how that could happen she eventually comes clean wouldn't be one accurate statement to say that you knew full well that that ticket wasn't winner yep Dole pleaded guilty to theft and a judge ordered her to pay a fine the lottery is based upon public trust with our players so we routinely do compliance checks getting ready to do a undercover operation at BJ's Kwik Mart mobile station in a separate sting an agent asked store clerk Travis Ferguson to check whether his scratch-off was a winner Just My Luck well no winner for me huh no like dole Ferguson was charged with theft found guilty and paid a fine I think what's really important for people to notice that we are out there regularly since 2013 the Wisconsin lottery investigated more than a half dozen cases of store clerks stealing prizes not only from undercover agents but actual customers in Eau Claire three people were charged with stealing and elderly customers $10,000 winning tickets investigators say instead of mailing the ticket to the lottery office mega West's employee Kimberly strand gave it to her boyfriend who then offered his brother $500 to claim the prize all three were found guilty the Wisconsin lottery reiterates out of 37 hundred retailers in our state only a handful of clerks are dishonest still we wanted to know does that tarnish the entire lotteries reputation well and that's why we do the compliance checks is because we don't you know our reputation that public trust is is everything to us a couple of things to keep in mind when playing the lottery always sign the back of the ticket also stores have a lottery scanner upfront that you could use to check own ticket yourself you don't need a store clerk and if ever in doubt the lottery office says you could take the ticket to one of their validation offices now the store clerks you showed in this piece all fat were all found guilty but did any of them actually serve any jail time no some may say that's a little disappointing but ultimately they did have to pay a fine in excess of $1,000 and we've been able to confirm that all of these store clerks caught cheating the system have lost their jobs they should hold on to that ticket check it twice thanks

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Channel: TODAY’S TMJ4

Views: 2,887,349

Rating: 4.8037825 out of 5

Keywords: WTMJ-TV, local news, 10p, news, distributable

Id: 3-HWpJj8wbw

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Length: 3min 50sec (230 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 10 2016

Reddit Comments

I used to work with a guy that done this. I went in and switched with him one afternoon, and a lady came in about an hour afterwards and asked me to check her scratch card, turnt out she had won like 3 or 4 grand. I told her that and kinda joked with her to hang on to it for grim death until she got home to claim it, she said that's ironic and told me the man that was here earlier told her she hadn't won anything, but he was really reluctant to give it to her when she said she wanted it back anyway and had to ask about 10 times. I told her to report it when she claimed the ticket. A month or so later he was supposed to replace me and never showed up, so I was pissed off and calling around trying to see where he was and my manager called me and said he had been arrested for stealing winnings. in the end they worked out he had done it over 20 times. Obviously he got sacked and ended up doing nearly 5 years.

👍︎︎ 48 👤︎︎ u/Sgt-Bash 📅︎︎ Nov 07 2018 🗫︎ replies

A few years back I was in a gas station and a woman asked the youngish guy at the register to check her scratch off and he got excited and said it was $7,000 winner. Right then an older employee came out and asked to see the ticket and said it was not a winner and said the young guy was reading it wrong. The older guy threw the ticket in the trash and apologized for the young guy being an idiot or something.

The young guy pulled the ticket out of the trash and gave it back to the woman and said it was a winner and maybe his dad (the employees turned out to be father and son) was going blind.

The lady looked upset and took her ticket and left quickly. When she was gone the dad started screaming at the son in another language then ran into the back where you could hear him slamming stuff around.

👍︎︎ 17 👤︎︎ u/RonniePetcock 📅︎︎ Nov 07 2018 🗫︎ replies

Where I live, there's a few simple steps to be taken to prevent this. First, the customer is supposed to (but can't be forced to) check the ticket themselves on a self serve machine. If it's a winner, you then sign/mark the ticket (so the cashier can't switch it out with one they know is not a winner.) All tickets must be given back to the customer. The cashier has to actually hand it to you, or set it on the counter, and leave it up to you to refuse the ticket, they can't just ask if you want it back. When the cashier checks a winning ticket, there's a sound that plays, as well as it pops up on a screen.

The store can lose it's lotto privileges if they don't follow the rules.

👍︎︎ 12 👤︎︎ u/TangoMike22 📅︎︎ Nov 07 2018 🗫︎ replies

So many dishonest people in world today

👍︎︎ 6 👤︎︎ u/ted48060 📅︎︎ Nov 07 2018 🗫︎ replies

Is that Ron Burgundy?

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/BeerBoyJoey 📅︎︎ Nov 07 2018 🗫︎ replies

In maine, all the machines will ding and loudly say "You're a winner!" So no getting away with that shit here.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/Goose_1s_loose 📅︎︎ Nov 08 2018 🗫︎ replies