A Texas woman is out on bond after being arrested for allegedly obtaining a $5m lottery ticket by fraudulent means.
Arthurica Jackson, an employee at a QuickPump gas station and convenience store in Hearne, was charged with theft and fraud. According to KBTX, Judge Ramona Aguirre initially set her bond at $1.5m for each charge but reduced it to $150,000 each after complaints from members of the local community.
The official charges against Jackson are “Claim Lottery Prize Fraud >$10k” and “Theft of Property >=$300k.”
police have not said exactly what Jackson was alleged to have done
The criminal investigation is ongoing and police have not said exactly what Jackson was alleged to have done, other than attempting to claim the $5m prize from a winning $50 “Luxe” scratch-off ticket.
Because Jackson was a convenience store employee, it is possible that the situation is similar to one earlier this year in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
There, gas station attendant Meet Patel sneakily stole a customer’s winnings, using the lottery mechanics to his advantage.
The customer bought two $20 scratch-off tickets, but did not want to spend the few seconds to scratch them. Fortunately (or unfortunately in this case), each ticket has a barcode that can be read to see if the ticket is a winner.
Patel scanned the barcodes and found they were both winners. He gave the first ticket’s $40 in winnings to the customer, but when he saw the second was for $1m, he told the person it was a loser and tossed it in the garbage.
Patel was quickly found out when he tried to redeem the $1m. Again, it is unknown if this is what Arthurica Jackson did, but it is certainly possible.
