Michigan Lottery Employee Arrested for Stealing Tickets

Jul 21, 2006, 12:27 pm (8 comments)

Michigan Lottery

A Michigan Lottery employee was facing larceny and embezzlement charges for his alleged scheme to steal scratch-off tickets, Thursday.

51-year-old Larry Adams worked for the Michigan Lottery Commission as a sales representative. It was his job to acquire contracts with stores to sell the lottery scratch-off games.

When a game is discontinued the unsold tickets are supposed to be pickup by another person to be destroyed, but instead, prosecutors said, Adams would go to the stores and take the tickets for himself.

Investigators said Adams pocketed almost $3,000 in winnings and the stolen tickets had a face value of over $1,100.

Wayne Country Prosecutor Kym Worthy said, "There is a public act in this case that strictly prohibits any employee of the lottery commission from having any contact with these tickets that he had come in contact with. He knew that he was supposed to have no contact with these tickets...We feel this steals directly from the school children of the state of Michigan because all the proceeds from these ticket sales go directly to the School Aid Fund."

Adams was arrested and now faces charges of larceny and embezzlement.

WXYZ

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RJOh's avatarRJOh

Sounds like Larry came up with a system to beat the lottery the old fashion way (stealing).

DoubleDown

What a stupid move on his part..

stupid is as stupid does....

bellyache's avatarbellyache

Losing a well paying job for $3,000 is stupid.

ochoop17

 Greed Stupidity Indifference Ruins Us All.

TheGameGrl's avatarTheGameGrl

Ohh the drama of stealing from school children! Why the core of that man must be.....

That of an opportunist!

The Michigan lottery just showed they have a flaw in their system and then divert it by smacking the guys fingers. 

 Two wrongs dont make it right.......

 

but four left turns do make ya dizzy!

liberal47's avatarliberal47

LOL! There is no flaw in the system. I used to work for the State of Mich. and part of my job was to destroy those same scratchoff tickets in a giant shedding machine. I tossed hundreds of thousands of tickets into that grinder, and at no time did I have the urge to pocket anything, because anyone with half a brain knows that every ticket created is tracked from cradle to grave, whether it is bought, scraped off, or never unwrapped or sold. This guy had to be on drugs. Oh well there goes the pension! At least he has a new job making license plates.

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

LOL! There is no flaw in the system. I used to work for the State of Mich. and part of my job was to destroy those same scratchoff tickets in a giant shedding machine. I tossed hundreds of thousands of tickets into that grinder, and at no time did I have the urge to pocket anything, because anyone with half a brain knows that every ticket created is tracked from cradle to grave, whether it is bought, scraped off, or never unwrapped or sold. This guy had to be on drugs. Oh well there goes the pension! At least he has a new job making license plates.

Interesting. I agree it is really stupid to risk one's job and pension for a few thousand. When I just wrote that it sounds as if I think it's okay to steal for a million - no, but it just seems more idiotic when it's only $3,000. Once I saw a film about the people who destroy U.S. currency that is worn and no longer useful.  I was wondering what it's like to shred all the money!! Guess it's just another job like destroying lottery tickets

Anyway, I was surprised when I read this on the Fed Reserve site. Didn't realize that money doesn't last too long...well it doesn't in my wallet, but I meant in circulation.

 From FederalReserve.gov

How long does a bill last before it wears out?

$    1     21 months
$    5     16 months
$  10     18 months
$  20     24 months
$  50     55 months
$100     89 months

LckyLary

OK.. something is fishy in that article.. the tickets had a face falue of $1100 but he cashed in $3000???????  He would have been better off to just BUY the $1100 in tickets!!! How does the Michigan Lottery make any money with that negative ratio? Or was there maybe one ticket that happened to be in that batch that won a big prize?

 

 "Eliminate All Computer-Controlled Online Casinos!"

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