NY brothers charged in plot to steal $5M New York Lottery ticket

I stand corrected!  Thank you for the information. 

I really did not want to lose my faith in the state of New York because I really love to visit the place.

FWIW...

There's many reason not to buy scratch-off's. Some are more subtle than others.

A while back an LP  member posted that he found out through the NY State Freedom of Informtion Act that when lottery retailers go out of business they must return both opened and un-opened packs of scratch-off's to the state.  He learned the un-opened packs were sent back out to lottery retailers, but the opened packs were destroyed. Thus possibly destroying a top prize winning ticket.

The NYS Lottery obviously knew that was a possibility, but they wouldnt divulge it until forced to thru the NYSFOI act.

Like I said, the ticket had been SOLD...... just not cashed. So the unsuspecting public THOUGHT it was available to be won, when in reality the lottery knew it was either lost or stolen for the whole 6 years.

"Authorities knew about the true winner, who will be named after he gets his affairs

in order, from a Syracuse police officer who picked up the information about him on

the streets".

The street? lol That soooo New York!!!!

No wonder I hear the theme music from Law & Oder.

Lol!

I'm here wondering what PROOF did the actual winner present or the NYS lottery uncover during its investigation that validated the rightful claim. Tapes would be destroyed at the time the brothers made their claim and the real winner never endorsed the ticket. Beyond that it's a case of He Said/She Said.

Is there something I am missing here?

won't the parents store lose the lottery franchise ?

Well something in that man's story rings true, I'm sure they investigated it.

Maybe he has bank statements stating a deposit of $4,000 was made at the time he brought in the

winning ticket, who knows.

So far I have not heard of anyone else comming forward and calling him a liar saying it's their

ticket and not his. That was 6 years ago, I'm so glad he remembered!!

You're right, the unsuspecting public thought it was available to be won. 

That said, I've read that The NYS Lottery claims they do not know when a top prize winning ticket is SOLD.  Which I tend to believe, because someone could buy a top prize winner, but not immediately scratch it.  Suppose they didnt scratch it right away, and put it in the glove compartment of their car and forgot about it.  There's no telling how long it might remain in there.... and there'd be no way for The State of New York to know what happened to it. 

The State could certainly suspect it was lost or stolen, but they cant know for a fact what actually happened to it.  To my mind, the State should not be allowed to indefinitely keep the game going.  I dont know if there is in fact a date that's established as to when the game would be cancelled or not, but if a sole top prize ticket goes unclaimed for a certain amount of time, then the game should be ended. The tough part would be determining how long that time period would be.

My state has a website that shows the prizes left on every scratch-off ticket that is for sale and it is updated daily so you know what to buy and what not to buy. Some of the retailers even print it out and leave it by the counter so people can see for themselves which is nice. 

It should be mandatory though that every retailer has a system that has a screen that shows how much you won and you should also have to hand back the ticket and a slip stating how much it has won. 

The machines here print out a receipt, but it always get thrown in the trash unless I ask for it.

The lottery knows what store had the winner and when. They also know how long it takes to use up that inventory. So perhaps a "lost ticket alert" could have been disseminated???

Are you saying that the lottery knew this before the winning ticket was sodl or after the winning ticket was turned in?

They have an inventory of every ticketed printed, whats on it and where it goes. I would think the invetory control is very strict.

Todd, would you be able to locate and load a copy of this winning scratch off ticket.  It would be great for us LotteryPost members to peruse it and see if somewhere shows $5000, or something to that confusing effect.

Fellow LP members, isn't it interesting that several lottery winning ticket holding folks continue to think it's okay to not pay required "Federal and State Income Taxes," on winnings, and therefore 'trade' to accept lesser payouts from their local, fellow law breakers?  Aren't both of these types of residents (not necessarily legal, bonafide citizens) guilty of major crimes?  Shouldn't BOTH larcenous parties be prosecuted with a couple years of community service (why should we mainly financially struggling income tax payers pay $50K each prisoner, annually to provide them daily: room, entertainment, exercise, meals, snacks, and courses?), monies returned to the lottery headquarters, and re-distributed via multiple yearly "2nd Chance Drawings" from submitted losing tickets of same online or scratch-off game?