Trading clerk surrenders to face charges of stealing lottery ticket

Jan 7, 2004, 11:32 am (5 comments)

Mega Millions

The trading clerk at the center of a $175,000 Mega Millions lottery ticket dispute in Chicago surrendered to police Tuesday on felony theft charges.

Dora Leal, 44, of North Spaulding Avenue, showed up at Harrison Area headquarters with a lawyer and turned herself in, Cmdr. Steve Peterson said. The surrender was arranged by detectives Kenneth Krupowicz and Cleveland Thomas.

The whereabouts of the disputed lottery ticket are unknown.

Leal is accused of pocketing a winning ticket that a group of traders from the Chicago Board Options Exchange had given her to find if it was a winner. Leal has told police she never had the ticket, but the store owner that sold it says Leal signed her name on the ticket's back.

Traders Richard Tobin and Richard Lakawalle filed a police complaint against Leal on Friday. They insisted the winning ticket was among the 38 Tobin's son bought on Dec. 31 for a group of 16 traders.

Leal was placed on leave last week after the dispute unfolded. She is in police custody pending a bond hearing this morning.

Lottery officials have placed a hold on the ticket, which the traders photocopied before giving to Leal, police said.

Chicago Sun-Times

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DoubleDown

The hits just keep on coming.....

 Former Eagle's member Glenn Frey from the song "smugglers blues"  "It's the lure of easy money, Its got a very strong appeal"...

 

Very strong indeed... this incident coupled with the Ohio controversy= greed.

DD

BabyJC's avatarBabyJC

It sounds like the woman did not know that the traders made a photocopy of the tickets before they gave them to her.  Thanks goodness they did!  Also, in Massachusetts, they list the names/cities of all first place prize winners on their website.  What a poor decision she made, which shows her true colors. 

Bug's avatarBug

 

If she throws the ticket away, who's gonna know?

Bug's avatarBug

 

She could say someone stole her photocopy. No proof that didn't happen.

johnph77's avatarjohnph77

Seems to me the poor decision was made by the idiot who gave a potential winning ticket for someone outside the pool to check.....

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