LAKEVILLE, MASS. (WHDH) - Two people have been indicted on charges that they schemed to steal a winning lottery ticket and attempted to cash it in at Massachusetts State Lottery Headquarters, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz has announced.
On Friday, a Plymouth County grand jury returned indictments charging Carly Nunes, 23, of Lakeville, with one count each of Larceny from a Building, Attempted Larceny, Presentation of a False Claim, and Witness Intimidation. Additionally, the grand jury indicted Joseph Reddem, 32, of Manchester, N.H. on one count of Attempted Extortion.
On Jan. 17, a man entered the store formerly known as Savas Liquors on Bedford Street in Lakeville and purchased a bag of barbecue potato chips, two Massachusetts State Lottery Quick Picks for the Mega Millions lottery, and two for the Mass Cash lottery.
The man added a multiplier to his Mega Millions ticket to increase the jackpot prize. Nunes, the checkout counter clerk, input the order into the lottery terminal, and printed two lottery tickets. Nunes returned to the cash register and rang up the man’s order, totaling $12.
The man left the store and drove home with the bag of potato chips, but left his lottery tickets behind in the lottery terminal tray. That evening, the man’s identical Mass Millions ticket numbers were announced as the winning numbers, earning a $3 million prize. After leaving the store and realizing he no longer had his tickets, the man briefly searched for them but concluded that they were lost.
Two days later, Reddem, a co-worker at Savas, drove Nunes and her boyfriend, to the Massachusetts State Lottery Headquarters in Dorchester to redeem the lottery prize. The ticket was torn and appeared to be burned. Nunes wrote up and submitted her claim for the winning prize.
After an investigation, authorities worked to find the true victim/owner of the winning ticket, posting flyers with screengrab shots of the man in surveillance video, canvassing the Lakeville area, and questioning patrons about the man’s identity. After nearly a month, on Feb. 13, the man was located and interviewed by investigators.
The Massachusetts State Lottery Commission intends to honor the victim’s claim on the $3 million jackpot.
Nunes and Reddem will be arraigned on the indictments at a later date.
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