A lottery loser may have been a big winner after all.
A joint investigation by Louisiana State Police and the state's Lottery Corporation determined on Wednesday that a clerk at a Belle Chasse convenience store conned a jackpot winner out of his ticket and a payoff of $800,000.
The purchase of the ticket took place in late May, according to local media sources.
When the owner brought the ticket back to the store to claim his prize, the clerk allegedly told him he was mistaken and kept the ticket.
Investigators said Melissa Trahan, 27, later sent the winning slip to her mother in Mississippi. That woman, Gwen Landry, drove to Baton Rouge and cashed it in for the big prize, state police said.
Months later, the actual purchaser contacted authorities, convinced he did indeed buy a winning ticket. That prompted the investigation this month.
"I hope she gets the maximum penalty that she can get by law, because this is a shame," said Cathy Chaisson, who had just purchased her own tickets in Belle Chasse. "The person who played the ticket should be getting the money."
What money the rightful owner will recover is not yet known.
Investigators said they believe the suspects accepted a lump sum payment of $560,000 and were planning to move to an unknown location when they were arrested on Wednesday.
State Police recovered bank records, two handguns and a small amount of marijuana when they executed a search warrant at Trahan's Belle Chasse home.
A sum of $389,000 was subsequently located in a Mississippi bank account. Those funds have been frozen.
Thanks to petergrfn for the tip.
why o why the store clerk? i guess if you are going to hand over your winning ticket put your name on the back. i mean getting your winnings is more important than staying annonymous. if you hand over a ticket to someone , make sure it has ytour name on it., unless its the state HQ of lottery
correct Goose! Signing doesnt hurt even losing tickets :)
Good detective work by the investigation team. Glad to read stories this story
I hope the guy gets his money back and those people get prosecuted if they are guilty. However, if I knew I had a set of winning numbers, there is no way I would just hand the ticket over to a store clerk. No way.
This is the reason that Iowa (& some other states) require that you sign the ticket before cashing it or having the clerk check it for you.Its a pain in the butt signing scratch offs to collect a dollar or two,but it keeps the clerks honest.
Man I'd be so mad! Then again, I probably would never take my ticket to anyone at a store. Times are tough right now and people are doing some crazy things to make (or steal) a buck.
I don't care how poor I am, I could never do that to someone.
I wonder what a winning scratcher looks like..lol
"Winners never cheat and cheaters never win!!" I am glad they were able to catch the clerk who stole the ticket. Let this be a lesson to all to either check your tickets on line, on the evening news or in the newspaper. It also helps to sign the ticket. Just hoping that my numbers hit soon, The way the economy is looking a dollar is not even worth a dollar right now. Why doesn't the goverment bail out people who are struggling instead of these financial institutions that got us into this mess.
$389K could buy a big bag, I imagine.
I can understand if it is a mega million ticket with 300 millions + jackpot...but this? lol
On a serious note, don't steal!
I've never understood people who don't check their numbers themselves on a lotto ticket. Even when a Powerball jackpot gets over 300 million I saw someone at my local gas station hand over his ticket to see if he was the winner. Would you hand over a check for a million dollars?? If your ticket is a winner then that's the only proof you have!! Treat it like you would a LARGE check. Like the poeple you hear about throwing a ticket in a junk drawer or find it under there bed and it turns out to be a winner.
Someday my Jackpot will come!! "BIG "lottery" game hunter....lol
OMG......how in the world...............!
ummmmm I hope the clerk gets exactly what she deserves. That was so foul of her. Whats worse to think about is how many other store clerks have done this same thing and gotten away with it.
Really, I hope that clerk gets theirs... but good!
"When the owner brought the ticket back to the store to claim his prize, the clerk allegedly told him he was mistaken and kept the ticket."
I only take tickets in to claim a prize and if the clerk tells me it's a loser I request it back because I would rather recheck it later myself than call the clerk a cheat. Besides, I keep all my losing tickets for taxes in case I win a large prize. Some clerk keep the winning tickets because the terminal prints paid on them with slip showing the amount they should pay the customer which they keep as a record showing why they removed that amount of money from their register.
Greed does crazy things to good people. Very sad.
no no no ... no good person would do something like this .. evil, shiesty, devious people that get a chance will go ahead and do crazy things ... who knows that she was good, i doubt it .. i can see if it's crazy good things [good people in love do retarded crazy things] but greedy evil people do this and good people that are greedy, know better and restrict themselves from doing such ... no? it sounds as if the person had checked it and came simply to CLAIM it .. their mistake not to take the ticket back - had a winning scratch off, knew it, went to get money, the clerk said not a winner and threw it in garbage - i told them 'give it back' and asked the other clerk to verify, guess what? winner [as i knew] told the other one they need to stop doing these scams on people - customers around just shook their head, doubt it anyone is going back there to check their tickets - but there are many illegit clerks that will try their luck and do this - they either get caught or not - i'm glad this one did - hope she gets the book thrown at her and mama!
its amazing how many times I told the clerk you didn't give me back the right ticket !!! they take forever handing it back to you;
hoping you will go away....this is very true in low income neigghborhoods with forign nationals behind the counter!!!
3 months ago I called the lottery police aka investagators about a forign national clerk who kept a 5.00 straight pick-4 - ticket I purchaced ;
I had a sales summary to prove I bought the ticket the code on each ticket proved where I purchaced the numbers and she never gave me that ticket but handed me the rest all the time smilling in my face
......dont be fooled it happening all over the place and
when most people are in a rush.....or at lunch ;
Even signing your name on it doesn't always work. Let me explain. Today, I went to the local Marathon station to cash in my Mega Millions ticket and collect my $2.00 that I had won. I had signed my ticket.
I handed it to the store clerk who ran it through the terminal. She handed me a slip of paper from the terminal that said, "Ticket was already validated at this terminal." And she did not give me my $2.00. She handed my signed MM ticket back to me and told me to contact the 800 number to the Ohio Lottery.
The store clerks will find a way around scamming you even if you have signed your ticket, as in my case.
- if you won $2 and the clerk said it's already claimed..here is a weird possibility. The tickets have numbers on them. What would happen if a clerk entered (throat clearing sound) the wrong number (saying that the ticket is "blurry" and won't scan in).. and it showed a prize? They don't turn in the small claim tickets, do they? Or maybe the clerk ran it and thought it didn't take, and ran it again somehow... also what if they put the wrong # vs. a winning ticket and it says Already Claimed or No Winner?
- if they won 800K that does NOT sound like a typical scratch-off prize, so I will guess it's a Powerball/PowerPlayX4 prize?
- on the terminals in nj, when they run the ticket it shows up on the little screen "PAY (amount)" or "FILE CLAIM" if it's over $600. I have seem some Stores have the screen ROTATED so that you cannot see it yourself. Those I'd watch out for. If you won a jackpot and they say "Already Claimed" then bring it straight to Lottery HQ.
- the worst trick would be if they keep a few losing tickets handy in case a winner comes in and using sleight of hand they switch in the loser to scan and slip the winner out of sight. Or even just deliberately manually enter the wrong #.
This is why sometimes they (Feds?) look suspiciously at store clerks that "check" way too many tickets. Make sure the clerk scans (not enters by hand) the code and that the payout is visible to you.
You better believe it ! I wonder what kind of game it was....it seems $800K is a lot for a scratch-off, which sometimes CAN be confusing when you try and determine if the scratch-off is a winner. SO I'm assuming it was an online ticket for a jackpot game. In either case, why oh why does soemone take an $800K ticket that they think is a winner to a STORE ? They can't pay off on anything like that ! You take the ticket to the Lottery Headquarters !
I would have been really, really angry is this happened to me. I have had problems with 2 different store clerks at a store I go to. I now watch the store clerks very closely when they handle my winning tickets. You have to be vigilant and watch those store clerks who would steal your fortune away from you.