[UPDATE] D.C. woman who tried to redeem faulty ticket admitted to forging second 'winner'

Sep 9, 2015, 7:48 pm (29 comments)

Virginia Lottery

By Todd Northrop

A Washington, D.C. woman who enlisted the help of local media to try and claim a faulty Virginia Lottery scratch-off ticket actually tried to claim a second lottery ticket of the same exact game that she admitted was a forgery.

Lottery Post reported Wednesday morning that Ardella Newman of Washington, D.C. is taking the Virginia Lottery to task for denying her claim of a scratch-off ticket that she claims is worth $20,000.  The Virginia Lottery had issued a statement that the ticket was printed in error, and that further investigation was taking place.  (See D.C. woman's 'winning' scratch ticket voided, Lottery Post, Sep. 9, 2015.)

Now that investigation is complete, and the Virginia Lottery has issued an extensive explanation of the faulty lottery ticket, as well as a statement and photos of Newman's other claim attempt in which she tried to forge a winning lottery ticket from separate tickets.

The Virginia Lottery, in an apparent charitable move, has laid the blame for the faulty ticket reported Wednesday morning on the lottery vending machine.  "The tickets presented by Ms. Newman were valid tickets that were torn, apparently when they were dispensed from Lottery self-service machine," according to the Virginia Lottery statement.

A high-resolution photo of the ticket in question (shown below) appears to show that the top part of a scratch-off ticket was ripped off, and then below the perforation that attaches the next ticket on the roll, the top of the next ticket was ripped off right below the winning numbers.

Although the Virginia Lottery apparently blames the vending machine, some may conclude that the ticket appears to be ripped by hand at convenient locations.

In fact, the manner in which the ticket was ripped is nearly identical to the way that Newman attempted to tape together two pieces from separate game cards to claim an additional $52 prize.  (The front and back of the second taped-together 'winner' is presented below.)

"It was clear to our customer service representative and our investigators that this too was an altered ticket where someone attempted to tape together two parts of separate tickets to claim a prize," the Lottery said in their statement.  "Ms. Newman admitted to our Lottery investigator that she taped the two tickets together."

Newman may be in hot water, as the Virginia Lottery is continuing to review this second case to determine if additional actions are necessary.  According to Virginia law Newman may be facing a Class 6 felony, which in Virginia bears a prison sentence from 1 to 5 years and fines to a maximum of $2,500.

§ 58.1-4017. Alteration and forgery; presentation of counterfeit or altered ticket or share; penalty.

Any person who forges, alters or fraudulently makes any lottery ticket or share with intent to present for payment or to transfer to another person to be presented for payment or knowingly presents for payment or transfers to another person to be presented for payment such forged, altered or fraudulently made counterfeit lottery ticket or share sold pursuant to this chapter is guilty of a Class 6 felony.

Because the Virginia Lottery blamed the vending machine for the first faulty ticket, Newman would not face a forgery claim for that ticket.

The scratch game Newman played has specific rules governing defective tickets.  Had Newman returned the defective ticket to the store or to the Lottery unplayed, she would have received a full refund or replacement ticket. 

From the Virginia Lottery's Instant Game Lottery 1552 "5x The Money" Final Rules for Game Operation:

K.      Ticket Validation Requirements:

2. The Ticket must have been issued by the Lottery in an authorized manner. The Ticket must be intact and must not, in whole or in part, be defectively printed, produced in error, counterfeit, unreadable, incomplete, mis-registered, defective, torn, stolen, mutilated, altered, reconstituted, tampered with or previously paid.

The Lottery rules in turn have a specific provision regarding defective lottery tickets.

11VAC5-41-120. Replacement of Ticket.

If a misprinted or otherwise defective ticket is purchased, the agency's only liability or responsibility shall be to replace the misprinted ticket with an unplayed ticket of equal price from the same or another current game or to refund the purchase price of the defective ticket.

Update

Lottery Post contacted the Virginia Lottery, which shed some additional light on the lottery's vending machines, and how a problem like this could occur.

As anyone who has purchased a scratch ticket from a store counter would see, scratch-off lottery tickets come on rolls, with perforations between each ticket.  When a player buys a scratch ticket, the clerk simply rips the scratch ticket along the perforation and hands it to the customer.

With an automated vending machine, the machine contains a device known as a "burster" which accomplishes the same task in an automated fashion.  This mechanism folds the ticket at the perforation and then "bursts" it where it was folded, causing the ticket to separate from the rest of the roll.

When the vending machine is loaded with a new roll of scratch-off tickets, the machine is configured with the length of each scratch ticket so it knows where to make the folds and burst the perforation.

The Virginia Lottery has confirmed that the vending machine that sold the faulty tickets was configured with the proper ticket length.

However, it is possible, although rare, for the vending machine to get out of alignment, causing the ticket to be folded and bursted at the wrong place on the ticket. This is apparently what happened with Ardella Newman's tickets when she purchased them in late August.

The lottery retailer reported that one other customer had the same problem with the vending machine, although that customer went to the retailer to remedy the problem rather than trying to piece together a winning ticket from parts of different tickets.

The store then made certain the machine was operating properly by re-aligning the burster, and no other problems have been reported with the machine since then.

The Virginia Lottery confirmed that the faulty tickets were definitely sold via the automated vending machine, since the retailer does not sell scratch tickets over the counter.  Also, because all lottery tickets are tracked by serial number to the retailers that sell them, the Lottery is certain about which retailer sold the tickets.

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

LottoMetro's avatarLottoMetro

Will be interesting to compare the comments from the last article to those on this one LOL

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

This is so sad. Clearly the serial number at the back show that someone attempted to tape two different tickets together. The lady losses all credibility. I still believe that lotteries should eat their errors and mistakes when genuine

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

Well.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Todd's avatarTodd

Public service announcement:  Friends make sure friends are Lottery Post readers.  Any Lottery Post reader would know this kind of thing never works.

HoLeeKau's avatarHoLeeKau

Quote: Originally posted by LottoMetro on Sep 9, 2015

Will be interesting to compare the comments from the last article to those on this one LOL

Well now that we have the whole story!  LOL

Raven62's avatarRaven62

Wow! Took her at her word: Instead of being an honest truthful person: She turns out to be a liar and a thief! Thud

sully16's avatarsully16

Quote: Originally posted by Raven62 on Sep 9, 2015

Wow! Took her at her word: Instead of being an honest truthful person: She turns out to be a liar and a thief! Thud

Exactly.

music*'s avatarmusic*

 The integrity of the Lottery has been restored.  Again.

mypiemaster's avatarmypiemaster

The sad part about this is that she actually showed her ugly face to the public, knowing fully well that she is a total fraud. Goodluck to the next person who has a disputed legitimate claim with the lottery gods. They now have a poster boy{girl}, to throw in your face. What a dumbass.

VenomV12

Wow, she's quite the criminal and <snip> liar. 

This post has been automatically changed by the Lottery Post computer system to remove inappropriate content and/or spam.

dr65's avatardr65

Told you she was trying to pull a fast one.

Unless all the employees were new hires and their first day on the job was 

when this airhead tried to present and have her mangled ticket processed, there 

was no way she was owed any money. Clearly it was 2 different tickets. The IVM's 

need to be set when refilling a slot..there are different sizes in inches of instants.

If a pack of $20's is loaded and the machine isn't set to cut that size, you'll wind 

up with part of a ticket or with a piece of another attached right below the perforation

that separates each ticket. It makes a jagged cut when it dispenses at the improperly 

entered size. I've seen it many times in PA. 

If I were as stupid as this lady, I would have attempted to convince examiners I was due

$5, $10, $50k with 1/5th of one ticket and 4/5ths of another.

Duh.

Now time to face the music.

Funtimz's avatarFuntimz

I had wanted to see a picture before I posted, and I am glad I did.  Yep, she's a cheating liar.

hearsetrax's avatarhearsetrax

Crazy people like her ought to get a month in jail

rochanda12

more than likely the lottery commission could charge her with fraud ...smh..

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