A trio of suspected theives are in the Cowlitz County Jail after police stopped their car Monday and found hundreds of lottery scratch tickets.
The tickets had allegedly been purchased using VISA cards with fraudulent numbers, police said.
Shortly after 1 p.m. Monday, Kelso police officer Bebe McFall heard a dispatch report about people trying to buy hundreds of dollars' worth of scratch tickets with bad debit cards at two convenience stores. The cards were denied.
McFall said she recognized the suspects' license plate number from an earlier case of a man who tried to buy a laptop at Target with a fraudulent VISA, then left in a Ford Focus. McFall went to the Freeway Shell, 1821 South 13th Ave., after learning that Cowlitz County sheriff's deputy Brent Harris stopped the Focus. Using a surveillance photo, McFall confirmed the driver, Christopher Michael English, was the suspect in the Target case.
The Focus was a rental from Spanaway, Wash., that was stolen but not reported, McFall said.
She said English, 35, of Spanaway, had two VISA cards with the original numbers removed and replaced with phony numbers. Passenger Heather Jean Whitney, 21, of Ephrata, Wash., had two fraudulent VISA cards and two credit cards stolen from a Tacoma man in a vehicle prowl Nov. 18, McFall said. Passenger John Lawrence Portmann, 38, Tacoma, had three fraudulent VISAs, McFall said.
She said the driver's side pocket was stuffed with lottery scratch tickets, and hundreds more scratch tickets covered the floors and seats. The car also contained nitrogen oxide and paraphernalia commonly used for huffing, a marijuana pipe and a glass meth pipe, McFall said.
Other convenience stores reported visits from the trio, the report said.
English was booked on suspicion of forgery and first-degree possession of stolen property. Bail: $30,000. He also had a Department of Corrections warrant.
Whitney was booked on suspicion of identity theft and forgery. Bail: $30,000. She also had a misdemeanor warrant from Kittitas County.
Portmann was booked on suspicion of forgery. Bail: $20,000.
The report does not indicate if any of the lottery tickets were winners.
that's wild...you can only buy lottery tickets with cash in FL
Todd,you need a "stupid thieves" catagory of stories.At the end of the year we could vote on who we think was the stupidest thief of the year.We could all get a few extra laughs at the expense of those that got caught trying to cheat the lottery.
Good idea !
Same in NC and SC!!
I've never even tried to buy tickets with a credit card. I didn't think it was allowed in most places.
They were debit cards. I think most places consider them cash.
Here in GA it's cash only. I do believe that's a good thing, though, IMO. Possibly cut down on problem gambling, not have people bouncing checks and stealing tickets that way, and all that stuff.
I bet the scratch offs are all losers too, haha. I hate those things.
Washington state and Idaho state allow purchase of lottery tickets with debit cards, both scratch and on line games. Mega Millions and Power Ball Respectably. At least Idaho did the last time I was there. And not all stores will do so, only those that process their debit cards immediately.
It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people are.
actually in GA there are some stores especially if you are a regular customer it is possible to buy tickets with a debit card. You have to buy at least $3 worth. There are 2 stores I go in a pinch when I don't have cash and don't feel like finding my bank ATM.
and i agree about the tickets probably being losers. the most i've ever won was $20 on a scratch off.
i don't understand why people play them so much and even spend $20 a ticket. I've witnessed people spending $3000 in one day + on scratch offs and only win about maybe $500 total. From what I heard the state puts the majority of the winners in the small outlying towns.