Cashier switched her story during investigation, something didn't add up
By Kate Northrop
LAKEVILLE, Mass. — A liquor store clerk and her coworker have been indicted on charges that they stole a winning Massachusetts Lottery ticket worth $3 million and attempted to cash it in.
Following a four-month investigation, a Plymouth County grand jury indicted Carly Nunes, 23, of Lakeville, on multiple criminal charges for stealing and attempting to claim a winning lottery ticket worth $3 million.
Massachusetts State Police, the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, and Lakeville Police worked together in a four-month long investigation that involved video surveillance footage, witness interviews, and "a voluminous review of records," U.S. District Attorney Timothy Cruz said.
On Jan. 17, 2023, the victim, who remains anonymous, entered Lakeville Market & Liquors on Bedford Street in Lakeville and brought a bag of barbecue potato chips to the counter for checkout. He asked to buy a couple lottery tickets — two Quick Picks for Mega Millions and two Quick Picks for Mass Cash. He added the multiplier option to his Mega Millions plays to increase non-jackpot winning prizes.
Nunes input the order into the lottery terminal and printed two tickets. She returned to the cash register and rang up the customer's purchase for a total of $12.
The unidentified man left and drove home with the potato chips but forgot his lottery tickets in the terminal tray at the store. That same night, one set of numbers on the ticket came up in the Mega Millions drawing, and with the Megaplier option added, it won a $3 million prize.
Now realizing his mistake, the man "briefly" searched for his missing lottery tickets but concluded they were simply lost.
About 45 minutes after he had left the liquor store, a different customer came in to buy lottery tickets. Nunes entered their order into the terminal, printed out the tickets, and handed them off. However, the customer realized they had been given two extra tickets, the same ones that had belonged to the victim, and handed them back to Nunes. She took the tickets and said they must have belonged to "him," referring to the previous customer that had left them behind.
Two days later, on Jan. 19, 2023, coworker Joseph Reddem, 32, of Manchester, New Hampshire, drove Nunes and her boyfriend to Massachusetts Lottery headquarters in Dorchester to claim the prize. There, a Lottery customer service representative scanned the ticket and confirmed it was worth $3 million, but it was torn and appeared to be burned. Regardless, Nunes and her boyfriend hugged and cheered when they found out it was valid.
Lottery surveillance footage shows Nunes and Reddem arguing in the lobby of the building shortly after verifying the ticket, where Reddem allegedly demanded prize money. Nunes told Reddem that she would "only pay him $200,000," a news release stated.
With Lottery officials having overheard the couple's argument, and in conjunction with the damaged condition of the ticket, Massachusetts Lottery investigators grew suspicious and decided to interview Nunes before paying out the prize.
At first, Nunes told officials that she herself bought the winning ticket at the end of her shift on the day of the drawing and accidentally tore it when she removed it from her wallet. The ticket also sported burn marks, which she said was a result of mistakenly placing the ticket on a pipe. After collecting her initial statement, the Lottery told Nunes that they were opening an investigation and that she would receive her prize at the very end.
Nunes' story was immediately contradicted by security footage at Lakeville Market & Liquors, which confirmed that it was the male victim, not Nunes, who bought the winning ticket. Investigators sat Nunes down for another interview, and the cashier told a different story. Rather than purchase the ticket herself, she had "inadvertently obtained the winning ticket."
On Friday, Nunes was charged with one count each of Larceny from a Building, Attempted Larceny, Presentation of a False Claim, and Witness Intimidation, while Reddem was indicted on one count of Attempted Extortion.
One month after the drawing, the true winner realized he had accidentally left the winning ticket at the liquor store. Investigators posted flyers across Lakeville that displayed screenshots of the man in the surveillance video and questioned other customers about his identity. On Feb., 13, 2023, investigators located and interviewed the original purchaser of the winning ticket, Cruz said.
The Lottery says they will be paying out the full prize to the victim. Nunes and Reddem will be arraigned on the charges at a later date.
What the dregs of the Earth won't do.
Lakeville has had its share of big time winners. Had never been there and last time home ventured there to buy losing lottery tickets!
I wonder why they don't put the same effort when a winner does not come forward to claim their prize.
You know, check the video at the exact purchase time and put out some photos of the winner 🤷🏾♂️
Or is it because the State gets to keep the money 🤔
Nway, what do I even know 🤣🤣
* That happened to a lottery winner named Baldimir Agnite from CA back in 2012. They exposed the guy on TV for not coming forward to claim his prize after 30 days. They got heat for it.
had this happen to me and I said the ticket was a winners he said it didnt scan right I said give it back to me I will throw it out never went back to that store ever (it was only 5$ but the point )
Glad the lottery did an investigation and the rightful owner got the payout
That's so honest and kind of the Massachusetts Lottery.
She sounds like a meth head . What pipe?
This is very common, I would go to a grocery store to cash my tickets as a lot of other people did too (Older, elderly etc) the clerk was very charming and always made them smile. However, I noticed she would always short me my winnings or say I didn't win if I had multiple winning tickets. I noticed I had to correct every trip, it made me wonder if she was doing the same thing to the old people and they weren't catching on?? I reported her to the manager and even though she still works there, they took her off the customer service/lotto desk.
So let me ask this then. Every once in awhile I will find a lotto ticket in a store parking lot for a current drawing. If that found ticket wins would they press charges against me if I try and cash it?
Being greedy is one thing but being greedy and stupid is another thing.. a few things wrong with this story 1st which tickets did she hand the other customer? the losing tickets or the winning tickets because the story did say he bought two different games...anyway if she found out that it was for 3 million dollars there shouldn't have been an argument with anyone because she could have drove herself over there or get there any other kind of way all by herself without letting anybody know about it... Because you know what money does especially that amount.. maybe I would have settled for 200k without an argument but not everybody...but that's the way dumb goes...
If you "find" a lottery ticket and it's a winner, you can keep the money.
Lottery tickets are bearer instruments and whomever possesses and signs the back is the owner/winner.
Just remember, you didn't steal it, you found it.
That's a great point.. but I guess when nobody comes forward it's not a crime..
Finders keepers losers weepers
Apparently needing a driver ended up costing her. The driver should have just taken the 200k and not tried to extort the crooked cashier and all would have been fine. The tear and the burn wouldn't have caused an investigation all on its own but that argument inside the lottery office raised eyebrows. Why didn't he just wait in the car.
She said the ticket got burned when she placed it on a pipe.
What kind of pipe? And why would she place it on a pipe?
I would have said I accidentally washed my wallet and tried drying everything in it in the microwave. Don't laugh, it works. I'm serious. It's quicker than leaving every thing on a table under a light bulb for a few hours.
But it will burn your lottery tickets.
It's hard to trust anybody in that situation.. and who's to say she would have even gave him $200,000 that's the purpose of keeping it to yourself... that's surely what I would have done..
Oh well you two enjoy your stay at Club Fed
Remember that there has to be an intent to abandon a ticket. If one can prove it was lost or stolen and efforts were made to find it, that overrides the bearer instrument theory.
I guess it all depends on how much the winning lottery ticket was worth. I did find a winning lottery ticket in the parking lot about a year ago, but it was only for $4. I cashed it in with no problems. There are some people who do buy lottery tickets and only care about the jackpot, anything less they don't want it. If that ticket I found in the parking lot was worth $1M or $50K, I probably would have mailed it in to lottery headquarters so, there would not be any questioned asking about where I purchased the ticket. I don't know if they would believe me if I told them, I found it discarded in the grocery store parking lot.
mysteriously burned ticket... my first thought as well.
I don't believe they would have stiffed the guy as he would have exposed them with the lottery officials and cops. He wanted more than a lousy 10% or so. I think 200k was fair for a ride to the lottery office.
Lottery officials would still ask you if you purchased the ticket. If I found a huge winner in a discarded ticket, I would be upfront about it. As you said, people discard tickets when they hear the jp was won somewhere else. Unless the purchaser was looking for the ticket which is unlikely, you would be in the clear. Hopefully lottery officials would not seek the original purchaser and look at the video absent other facts.
I usually use a kiosk machine to purchase tickets and wouldn't even know if I had "extra tickets" until I checked them. And even then if the tickets were for the same game I played, I wouldn't know for sure which of those tickets someone else bought.
Having never cashed a $1 million plus ticket, I don't know what questions the people validating the ticket ask; maybe someone that actually won that large a prize could tell us. Nunes and Reddem raised a red flag when they were arguing in the lobby after verifying the ticket. That, the torn and burnt ticket, and Nunes' different story is why it didn't all add up.
The really weird part of the story is the other customer Nunes handed the ticket too. If they hadn't realized they had been given two extra tickets would they been charged with stealing the tickets?
Now why would they ask you that? And if you was up front if you found it guess what? you get nothing..
Your lack of ethics is appalling. You will get nothing if they ascertain that you lied.
It's been discussed on this forum many times before that lotteries don't consider a top tier prize winning ticket a bearer instrument. If they paid it out to any rando who came into HQ bearing a winning instrument, and that rando happened to have stolen it, it would be super duper bad press for the lottery. In the age of ubiquitous surveillance, you can bet you a$$ they are going to review the footage.
Exactly. If you find a discarded ticket in the parking lot, there may be a video of it and/or of a person clearly discarding a ticket. In that case, you likely win. Now if the person seems to unknowingly drop the ticket, that is a different situation.
"Now why would they ask you that?"
Like I said in my last post, someone that actually won a $1 million plus jackpot could tell us the entire ticket validation process or a lottery official could too. Short of that we can only speculate on if the ticket holder is asked questions about purchasing the ticket.
According to the article the guy that bought the ticket "forgot his lottery tickets in the terminal tray", but when 45 minutes later when another customer bought tickets, "Nunes entered their order into the terminal, printed out the tickets, and handed them off". All the confusing and misleading statements made by Nunes and the fact she worked at the store was probably why she was asked about purchasing the ticket among other things.
Had the Iowa Lottery thought there was nothing strange or suspicious about a NY attorney Crawford Shaw trying to validate a Hot Lotto ticket as a trustee for a Belize-based trust called Hexham Investments an hour and 50 minutes before the ticket expired, hundreds of RNG drawings could have been rigged.
That being said, don't know why the lottery would ask if you found the jackpot ticket unless someone claimed they lost it.
someone who actually visited the sun could tell us if the sun is hot. short of that we can only speculate.
I can understand video evidence of someone throwing a ticket into a garbage can demonstrates intent to abandon a ticket.
Video evidence of someone accidentally and unknowingly dropping a ticket to my mind does not demonstrate intent. They simply lost their ticket. If at a later point in time I find it lying on the ground, and it's not signed on the back, then it's mine. Unless I actually saw the person drop it, I'd have no way of knowing who originally bought it so that I could return it to them.
The key would be to not lie to lottery officials... if you found it lying on the ground, then say that! That would probably trigger an investigation by them to try to identify the original buyer, or they might wait to see if someone reported it lost/stolen. If they can prove who the original owner is, then that person wins any/all prize money. If they cant, then the money is mine. G5
Like my story from probably three years ago. A well heeled lady playing scratch tickets and ATM right next to it. She played for a good long time and finally left. She tossed a $200 ticket. Took it to another store in town to cash in. some lying azz customer heard me talking to the clerk and said it was his. Told him it wasn't even from this store. Cashed it and left. Only found a $50 ticket since then.
I can't find the "why is the sun hot" discussion on LP, but if that knowledge helps you win a lottery jackpot, good luck.
It's not unusual for lottery discussion to go off topic including different opinions on what $1 million plus jackpot winners are asked when they validate their tickets. With 47 different lottery jurisdictions selling MM tickets, it's possible that everybody could be right.
There a huge difference between finding a ticket in parking lot and saying "bought the winning ticket at the end of her shift".
Do you have experience trying to cash a "found" lottery jackpot ticket?
what prompt did you give chatgpt to make it produce that nonsense? neat trick btw.
I am always entertained when someone starts whining about alleged off topic responses. The responses here (Minus the whiner) were a natural and logical exploration and extrapolation of the news article topic. Intellectual curiosity is lost on whiners.
I think it would be a fascinating situation if someone found and disclosed a major winning lottery ticket.
The odds of someone losing a major winning lottery ticket and having someone find it are higher than an individual just winning it in the first place. Unlikely that has ever happened or ever will.
All states are different. Based on what I know about the California Lottery and what I have read, I think even under this scenario the CA Lottery would not pay the claimant. There's a precedent of going out of their way to find the original owner. I agree these are interesting hypothetical scenarios to discuss.
For all this talk of bearer instruments, here is the exact legal verbiage on the back of a CA Lottery draw ticket (as of a week ago when I purchased this loser):
Your ticket, not the payslip is your valid receipt. Check your ticket immediately to ensure the information is correct. Sign the back of your ticket to indicate ownership. Winning tickets must be redeemed within 180 days after the draw in which the prize was won, except for the multi-state jackpot or grand prize tickets, which must be redeemed within one year after the draw in which the prize was won. There may be different claiming periods for replays, entries, coupons, and promotions. Check your ticket selections for accuracy. Ticket cancellation rules apply. You must present this ticket as proof of your selections to claim a prize. Determination of winners is subject to the rules and regulations of the California Lottery. Lotto Game Jackpots paid in annual payments or players may choose the cash value payment in one lump sum. Call 1-800-LOTTERY for more information. Must be 18 or older to purchase a ticket or claim a prize. Play Responsibly. Problem Gambling Help Line 1-800-GAMBLER. (c) 2013 California Lottery
Notice they keep it pretty vague and there is no "bearer instrument" or equivalent phrase. LPers in other states can share what it says on the backs of their tickets so we can all compare notes.
The words "bearer instrument" do not appear on the back of Florida Lottery tickets. It does say to sign the back of the ticket. G5
KY: Sign ticket immediately. Ticket is the only receipt you have to claim a prize.
It goes on and on about how to claim a prize up $600 and then again over $600. Nowhere on it does it say bearer instrument.
I'll try to look through their rules and regulations and see what the fine print is.
Read the MUSL Powerball rules. Couldn't find that the ticket was called a bearer instrument.
One thing that struck me regarding ticketless sales was the very last sentence: "A receipt for a Ticketless Transaction Play has no value and is not evidence of a Play".
OK, I get 'no value', but no evidence of Play? So if a computer glitch occurs which @ some point probably will what happens then???
I just read the official rules for Florida Fantasy5, Florida Lotto, and Florida's Jackpot Triple Play. None of those three documents contain the words "bearer instrument". Nor does The Florida Lottery recommend signing the back of the ticket in the official rules. That's printed on the back of the ticket.
Signing a ticket is the best and only way to protect yourself from loss or theft of your ticket. If you signed your ticket, lost it, reported to the lottery that you lost it and won a large sum of money, should someone who found it try to claim the prize, I seriously doubt they'd receive a dime. G5
I'd also point out that bearer instruments typically have printed on them "Pay to the bearer on demand". Although I'm not sure those words must be printed on each and every type of bearer instrument, you sure don't see those words printed on a lottery ticket. G5
That's interesting, G5. I read through the CA regulations and the only instance of "bearer instrument" is this paragraph talking about tickets bought at the pump.
Receipts issued by Fuel Pump Terminals that indicate numbers played are not traditional Lottery Tickets, are not bearer instruments, have no cash value, and are not evidence of the right to the chance to win a Prize or Promotional Award in a Lottery game.
Elsewhere in the regs I also found this paragraph:
If the Lottery establishes that a Ticket is a winning Ticket, but determines that the Claimant is not the Winner, the Lottery must reject the Claim and notify the Claimant that the Prize must be Claimed by and paid to the Winner. The Winner must submit a Claim Form in order to be paid. If the Winner fails to submit a Claim Form within the Claim Period, the Prize will be treated as an unclaimed Prize.
Unclaimed prize money in CA goes back to the state, not the prize fund, so there's an incentive to reject a 'finders keepers' type of claim. Anyway, this news story is about Massachusetts, so I'd better lay off the CA talk or else the self-appointed sheriff of off-topic discussions will come knocking.
No doubt about it - each state's approach to the claiming of a winning ticket of a significant prize is different.
I Googled "Is a lottery ticket a bearer Instrument" and found lots of articles. Reading through the articles it wasn't all that clear if a ticket is a bearer instrument or not. I did see something that said by signing the back of the ticket that essentially makes it your property.
My guess for Florida is that you might show up at Lottery HQ with a big winner, but that doesn't mean they are simply going to pay you no questions asked. I kind of get the feeling their attitude is "You might be holding the ticket, but we're going to make an attempt to ensure you're the person who is rightfully entitled to the cash."
How they could ever identify the rightful winner in the following scenario is beyond me. Joe Average goes into a convenience store and buys a QP. He doesn't even bother to look at the numbers much less sign it and stuffs it into his pants. As he's walking across the parking to his car, he reaches into his pocket, pulls out his car keys and doesn't notice that the ticket also comes out and falls to the ground. Joe doesn't see it and gets in his car and drives away. Another Average guy comes along five minutes later sees the ticket and picks it up. He checks it the next day and is an instant millionaire. Meanwhile Joe Average doesn't know it's a winner, figures it was just another loser anyway and does nothing about it.
The guy that found it doesn't tell a sole how he got the ticket, goes to cash it, lies to The Lottery saying he bought it, and since they have no reason to suspect anything they pay him... Joe Average is toast. G5