IOWA CITY, Iowa — An employee at an Iowa lottery retailer is charged with stealing a winning $250,000 instant scratch ticket and working with her boyfriend and mother in a clumsy attempt to claim the prize, investigators said last week.
Prosecutors allege that Casey's general store employee Ashley Bosler, 20, found the winning ticket by scratching off a corner and scanning the bar code that confirmed it was a winner of the game's top prize.
She allegedly hadn't paid for the ticket and was too young to play, so she asked a co-worker to sign it and eventually her boyfriend, who tried to claim it. Suspicious lottery officials refused to approve the payout after noticing scribbling on the back of the ticket.
"In the excitement of finding a winner, different ideas may have been suggested about how they go about claiming it," Buena Vista County Attorney Dave Patton said, adding that it was unclear who all wrote on the ticket but that Bosler's co-worker wasn't charged.
An investigation ensued, and all three were jailed this week on felony charges.
Bosler and her boyfriend, 26-year-old Johnny Long Jr., were being held in the Buena Vista County Jail in Storm Lake. Both are charged with theft of a lottery ticket. Bosler and her mother, 42-year-old Sally Bosler, are charged with aiding and abetting. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted.
Sally Bosler told The Associated Press on Friday that she didn't believe she'd done anything criminal.
"They really thought they won," said Bosler, who was released from jail Thursday after posting bond. "I don't know why I'm in trouble. I had nothing to do with it. I gave them a ride to go cash this."
She said her daughter "freaked out" after scratching the winning ticket at work on June 14 because she didn't meet the lottery's minimum age requirement of 21. She then asked a co-worker to sign the ticket, which is legally required to claim the prize.
Investigators allege that Sally Bosler took $20 to her daughter so she could pay for the already-scratched ticket.
But the elder Bosler said didn't know how the money was used and would never give her daughter money to play the lottery. She said she drove her daughter and Long to a regional lottery office to cash the ticket three days later. She said her daughter and her boyfriend talked of buying a home and donating some of the money to charity.
Public defenders were assigned Friday to represent Long, a farm laborer, and Ashley Bosler. Both are scheduled for bond hearings Monday. Their attorneys didn't immediately return messages.
All three live in Sioux Rapids, a town of 800 that has been buzzing about the case since the Wednesday arrests.
Sally Bosler said her daughter was fired from Casey's general store amid the investigation. A Casey's spokesman didn't return messages seeking comment.
The risk of theft and fraud by lottery retailers has long been a concern. In a 2009 investigation, the Iowa Ombudsman's office found that "some retailers and store employees have been uncommonly lucky playing the lottery" and warned that the agency needed to do more to prevent and detect problems.
The report warned about "pickouts" in which store employees keep winning scratch tickets and sell losers to the public.
"It is definitely a phenomenon that's known about in the lottery security world," said Ombudsman investigator Bert Dalmer. "It sounds like the lottery has been keenly aware of that in this case, which is a good thing for players."
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Here we go again. And they want us to believe that they can be trusted?
Why did the mother drive them to cash it? Couldnt the boyfriend or the girl drive.....because mama wanted her cut of the payout.
Even in an ungodly world folks know about: Thou shalt not steal!
I think mama wanted in on the prize as well.
This scenario plays out more often than people think as there are a lot of unethical employees working at many of these lottery retailers.
thug life. Like Marie Holmes and hot sauce. They get what they deserve. How dumb can you be. Omg
Something to ponder: Why do people go to such lengths to be just like these overly-publicized lowlifes?
Oh Ashley....
Never ending supply.
Good work by those Iowa lottery people recognizing this as a potential scam. They're the ones who busted Tipton too.
A while back i filled out an employment application for a gas station that i buy tickets at a lot. the first thing i was told was if hired I could no longer buy tickets there.that should be policy at all stores.at least while they are working
So did you take the job or did you move on seeing that you could not purchase tickets there? ..Just asking.
It would seem that being surrounded by all those scratchers would truly tests one's will power on a daily basis hey?
When are some of these fools gonna learn?.
I never got called. when she told me , I couldn't buy tickets there,she laughed and said the store would loose a lot of money.
You have got to love Sally ' s explanation " l just drove them there." What a kind and helpful Mother,looking out for her baby's interest. It's similar to the person driving the getaway car - " l had no idea these guy's had robbed a bank, l was just there to drive."
Good work by the Iowa Lottery Security staff.
This criminal activity is one reason why I only play PB & MM.
So wait she scratch corner, scanned to see if was a winner before the register recorded it as a sold tixket. Red flag number one
Then they paid 20 dollars for a ticket scanned b4 purchase
How stupid
Maybe TLC could run an hour long show on stupid lottery criminals vs How the lottery changed my life or whatever the name of that show was.
Great idea!
CNBC has American Greed which is really fun to watch (sad for those who get taken) but a cool show. TLC could do a weekly show on who got caught this week...
What really sucks is that the $250,000 prize will never be won by a legit player. The lotto players lose out now. I'm sure the state keeps the money.
Not sure how it works but I've purchased scratch offs that werent scanned in a few states... they are just pulled off the roll and rung up.... Maybe after the initial scan in the system to activate no need to actual ring it up. IJS
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Thank you. That struck me as strange too. But, not being a scratcho player, I didn't quite understand it.
Like Music* commented, I too am just a MM and PB player.
No doubt they'll have to change the whole way they manufacture these scratch-off tickets.
I don't know how, but I hope all participating counties get on board to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.
Lots of good comments on this article.
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I hear that.
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One person's greed caused the 3 to get felonies. This is the saddest part, I think, or maybe not.
Yes, we can all say "YOU", pointing at the Mom and blaming her for having brought up her daughter, which resulted in the daughter not appreciating honesty. But, it's hard for a youngster to appreciate all that, when tested like that.
BUT THEN THE MOTHER TO PARTICIPATE IN IT? Felony, for sure. How old was the girl? Maybe no felony?
That all makes me want to barf.
I've heard of youngsters doing all kinds of things, and belonging to ministers, and causing those parental ministers to have to step down from that position, and then the kid goes and does something even worse, and the parents attitude then was "oh, that. That's no big deal".
I've reported such a case to the highest "Office" of that church I could, and they didn't even want to hear about it!
I called a local congregation, and they didn't want to hear about it. And the first thing I'll admit to them is my past, and that I acknowledge my shortcomings. Still, they were then so closed minded, they didn't want to hear about this one of their Elders. It's almost like I was holding up a mirror and they were afraid of they're own reflection.
It's a messed up world.
I play lotto so I know I'm a gambler and a sinner anyway.
But, I don't go trying to be someone who's proud of his son, who then goes in front of the congregation, preaching.
I KNOW. I have seen with my own eyes and ears such corruption. It's sick and twisted, when you've been brought up to be a decent person, and then you get to see this? It blew my mind.
The thing those MINISTERS don't get is that God is up there in heaven, looking down on our sorry world, shaking His head.
This "SYSTEM" is BAD. And it's becoming more and more like a whirlpool of corruption, all the time.
Jehovah God eventually humbles all.
Kudos to alert Iowa lottery officials for catching these clowns. Hopefully a judge will give them a harsh enough sentence to make other potential crooks think twice about trying to rip off lotteries. A year in the slam and a thousand hours of community service for all three sounds about right to me.
All in the Family 21st Century style.
It is fraud. However, why can't any 20 year old play the lottery. That's messed up.
How many criminal $1,000 scratch-off winners have gone unnoticed by lottery security officials? Do they only do due diligence on big payoff hits?
Can you imagine the look on her face when she scanned the ticket and it said $250,000 winner?
Her plan fell apart because she was too young to play the lottery. Then she gets her Mom and boyfriend involved and now everyone's off to the hoosegow. Her Mom must be very proud of her daughter.
Sorry music* but it can even happen with a PB & MM, yrs ago an older Gentleman took his ticket to the store he always went to an have it checked they (the 2 clerks) told him it wasn't a winner, well he always kept his Tickets they knew that, one of them ripped up a piece of paper threw it away and they put the winning ticket in their pocket waited a short time before claiming their win, the older man seen them on T.V along with winning #'s he'd been playing for yrs, called the Lottery office told them what happened they checked the Security Tapes, his play slip and all the Tickets that he had kept with the same #'s on them, finally they were Arrested, He got his Money!
I probably shouldn't tell the world this but maybe it will STOP SOME OF THESE THIEVES???
YRS& YRS & YRS ago(you get it LOL), was in the convenience store business, when Lotto Scratch off rolls were delivered the Pack # is scanned on every role so the Lotto Office knows which rolls are where same with MM & PB paper by the printed #'s on the back of the roll for the same reason as above! I always gave the losing ticket back to the customer if they insisted on not taking it i ripped it up in front of them an threw it in the trash, the winning 1"s the machine printed out a slip with amount on it I always showed it to the customer so their would be no doubt how much they won, my store was in a area where I was born & raised we all knew each other, they trusted me I did it so My employees would have too that was the rule!