This Florida couple tried to fake it in a big way.
Authorities say Kira Enders and her boyfriend, Dakota Jones, tricked lottery officials into handing over a $1 million prize by stitching together two torn up scratch-off tickets to create a winning ticket. It is said that he did.
The top half of one ticket and the bottom half of the other were torn horizontally and then “carefully pieced together to reveal the $1 million winner,” according to a police report cited by the newspaper. ” Pensacola News Journal.
But the failed scammer forgot to check the serial numbers of two different scratch-offs, so the Frankenstein ticket fooled no one.
“I don’t think this is going to be a made-for-TV movie situation, because it was obvious to the lottery officials and certainly to us that she had two different tickets. Escambia “It had one serial number on one side and another serial number on the other side,” Sheriff Chip Simmons said. to CBS Florida.
“Especially every time you pretend you won a million dollars, they’re going to look at this ticket and look it up.”
Days after Enders, 36, submitted her ticket to the Florida Lottery in March, she and Jones, 32, drove to meet with a lottery agent to follow up on their possible win. Ta.
Instead of being given large checks, the two were immediately taken into custody and questioned separately upon arrival.
According to the police report, Enders claimed that the ticket fell out of his car and that it was raining. She later told authorities that she tried to inflict the wound before it dried, so she had to tape it back together to prevent further damage.
After it was pointed out to her that the backs of the halves didn’t match, she said, “What, these two don’t match,” and said the ticket was taped incorrectly, according to police documents obtained by the Pensacola News. He is said to have claimed that journal.
She said she hoped to share the winnings with Jones and open a salon, according to the report. According to Fox 35.
Meanwhile, Jones told the same lottery official that the couple was walking down a road in DeFuniak Springs when they found a wet ticket in half, according to a police report.
“Mr. Jones said that once the ticket was scratched, it said $1 million, and he thought, ‘That’s crazy,'” the report said. “Jones advised us that they had not bought a ticket and did not know what Enders had told us, but that it was true.”
The agent then told Enders that the top and bottom numbers were different, and Jones reportedly replied that his girlfriend knew the numbers didn’t match.
“I started saying, ‘She obviously knew…’ and Jones said, ‘Oh, she knew,'” the agent alleged in the report. “Jones quickly changed her statement and stated that when she saw the ticket she thought it was legitimate.”
The two were arrested this month and charged with theft, forging or altering a lottery ticket with intent to defraud, transferring a forged or altered state lottery ticket, and grand theft over $100,000, Fox 35 reported.
