From our “People do the stupidest things” file, a story out of Mississippi demonstrates the unlimited capacity of human beings to surprise and amaze us. In this case, our amazement is directed at the incredible stupidity of which people are capable.
Two men walked into the Mississippi Lottery Corporation claim center and presented a scratch ticket that they said was worth $100,000. It must have looked pretty fishy because lottery employees immediately called the police.
Incredibly, the two men tried to pass off a losing lottery ticket by gluing the winning numbers on to the ticket.
Can you tell that this is scratch off ticket is fake? Two men are accused of using super glue to attach winning numbers to a losing Mississippi lottery ticket. https://t.co/CGaNy6zEay pic.twitter.com/ek1rd1ZWCP
— Candace S. Coleman (@candacescoleman) January 6, 2020
Meg Annison, spokeswoman for the Mississippi Lottery, confirmed that two men visited the lottery headquarters and attempted to pass off an altered ticket, but declined to comment further. The lottery requires prizes over $100,000 be claimed at its headquarters.
Both men were charged with conspiracy to commit a felony and presenting a forged document over $1,000. Latham was additionally charged with providing false ID information.
They’re being held in the Rankin County Jail, according to the police statement.
Latham and Sparks appeared before a judge Tuesday. Their bonds were set at $51,000 and $20,000 respectively, Flowood Sgt. Adam Nelson said in an email to CNN.
Sparks is set to appear in court Thursday. Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges, Nelson said.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that someone, somewhere along the way was going to check the ticket out to validate it. In fact, there are almost certainly several different validation tests that a ticket must pass before the lottery would cut you a check. They apparently thought they were getting their check right away because they hung around for several minutes while lottery employees stalled them until the police responded.
They would have been far better off bringing a fake $500 winner into a store where some clueless high school kid could be tricked into handing over the money. But the two gentlemen decided to go for the gold and will end up serving time for their utter stupidity.
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