The cut-and-paste con was caught
By Kate Northrop
Police arrested and jailed a Pennsylvania man on Tuesday after he was caught altering scratch-off lottery tickets to look like winners using scissors and a glue stick.
Craig Marshall Stout, 45, of Jeannette tried cashing in his DIY lottery tickets at a 7-Eleven convenience store on Fosterville Road in Hempfield but failed to get away with it — this time.
His cut-and-paste methods had initially worked. Stout brought in three other fake tickets on Friday and Saturday and managed to scam the store of $1,290, employees said. Security camera footage provided to police showed both exchanges in which Stout had gotten away with the con.
This time was different. State police were called to the store at about midnight last night after employees reported the theft attempt. Sitting outside on a motorcycle was Stout, who had tried to swindle the store once more using a ticket that appeared to be a $500 winner.
According to court documents, police seized a pair of scissors, a glue stick, and an unaltered lottery ticket from Stout. He admitted to investigators that he was unemployed, needed some quick cash, and had already spent the money he stole from the store.
Stout was charged with two counts of theft, one count of receiving stolen property, one count of forgery, and another count of possession of an instrument of crime with intent. His bail was set at $25,000, with a preliminary hearing set for April 16. He is currently being held at Westmoreland County Prison.
Previous online records also show that Stout was sentenced to one year on probation in July and had his driver's license suspended for six months following numerous charges of driving offenses, including driving without a license and causing damage to another vehicle or property.
Sadly, it's not the first time that someone would attempt to steal a lottery prize by gluing together a fake winning ticket. A year ago two Mississippi men tried the same technique — and were also caught.
Here ya go!! https://youtu.be/CosD7h2703o
I don't understand how the Lottery Headquarter's computer didn't catch this two out of the three times. Now this store owner isn't going to get their hundreds of dollars back.
You can just see this one coming. Next he will sue the store for accepting and cashing invalid tickets...hmmm...lets see legal fees...pain...suffering...loss of reputation....I bet the way he sees it that should be good for a couple million...why oh why did they not tell him those tickets were not valid..he didn't force them to cash the tickets...wouldn't surprise me if he tried it!
I don't either. The first thing they do is scan the ticket so how could they cash it?
Chris
The only way I can see it working is if the store operator didn't scan the ticket.
So, why might they not scan the ticket...
Wasn't there a "scam" where sellers would give cash to a winner and claim the prize themselves? (something about avoiding letting the government know you had a windfall for people who had outstanding debts etc...
What an Einstein!
IDK about this. Something in my mind just not adding up. The tickets must not have been scanned since the barcode would indicate not a winning ticket.
Well he has three hots and a cot now @ taxpayer's expense of course.
I don't know why but the title of the article made me laugh.
This article is incomplete. As others mentioned retailers scan a ticket which tells them whether it is a winner or not and what it is worth. The ticket has to be verified before payment can be made. So the big question is why did the store pay out anything in the first place when the tickets in question were not actually winners?
It seems like he probably glued on matching numbers to create the winning ticket. May be he was charming enough to get the clerk to just cash the ticket in without actually scanning it. Or he intentionally messed up the bar code so it couldn't be scanned and said "Look, a winning number is 25 and I matched it for $500." That's just my theory.
We may never know...but somehow thinking the clerk was in on this...?
Too funny. It sounds similiar to the guys back in the 80s putting the water balls in the machine. Why would anyone do that?
Doesn't every lottery outlet in the US have cameras? Same as casinos, casinos things happen people try to have their ways.
The judge would throw it out. Cameras in the store too. wouldn't make it that far. think about it. it's not worth it and the tax payers as well.
Personally, l don't know which is worse: This act or store owners/ clerks micro scratching scratchers to see whether they winners or not, & then selling these duds to unsuspected customers. Nonetheless, they both wrong.
I've never understood the micro scratching and how it works -
If I bought a scratch card could I tell by looking at it?
Long time no see Kenny, still puffing away huh? Never was a scratcher man, so l wouldn't know, but it's been done & folks have been arrested.
Stay alive Ol Chap.
Thank you.
Yes still puffin', still losin' -
I am not a scratch card guy either - no one ever wins big on cards where I live - I don't think winners get sent here so I don't buy them haha
"Or he intentionally messed up the bar code"
I also don't play scratchers, but surely they also have numbers on them for identifying the specific ticket. The NY online game tickets I'm looking at have 3 sets of numbers on them in addition to the bar code. One set is a 5 digit code that identifies the retailer, and the others are 18 digits and 6 digits. There's also a set of printed numbers on the back that tell what roll of printer paper the ticket came from, and where on the roll it was printed.
Aside from general security measures, the lottery knows that tickets will get dirty or damaged, and they don't want to waste their time verifying modest winners. If a bar code doesn't scan properly when you buy something at a store the clerk can manually enter the numbers under the bar code, and I'd expect that's how it works for a lottery ticket if there's a problem scanning the bar code.
All those digits make it very unlikely to enter numbers that match a legitimate ticket unless you correctly enter the numbers from the legitimate ticket you're reading the numbers from. That means it's wildly unlikely that the clerk followed protocol and believed the tickets were winners based on a response from the lottery terminal.
That's what happens when you play THAT Lottery game "MONOpoly"... !!
Mono means "1, or single"... as his outcome proves that the only prize you'll win is "3 hots and a cot" from a Free "Go to Jail" card, that HE made..!!..
cause he's the ONLY one playing that game in the Whole County..!!