"Rubber Band Bandit" Wanted for Lotto Scam

A sneaky guy known only as the "rubber band bandit" is on the loose, scamming 15 shops in the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan out of scratch-off lottery tickets. The scam artist works by asking cashiers for a stack of scratch-off tickets, and then asking them for something else to keep them distracted. While they're turned around, he switches out the pile with a pile of used tickets with a fresh one on top, so it doesn't look any different. He then makes up some excuse and leaves with the new tickets. One deli owner says he walked out with $800 worth of instant-win tickets. Investigators better move fast, because the bandit is sure to catch his big break any day now.

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By Jaya Saxena in News on July 12, 2010 4:47 PM

Comments [rss]

Gertah

Aren't these scratch tickets numbered? If a store owner knows he just lost 40 tickets to a scammer, doesn't he just count backwards and include the range of numbers in his report to the authorities? Al they have to do is compile a list of suspect lottery ticket numbers, and they'll eventually find him. Unless, of course, he's re-selling them... Hey, now there's an idea.

jaycjay

It's not really that simple, because any vendor could claim that some tickets were stolen. Just like any wholesaler, the lottery commission doesn't care. Once they've been transferred to a vendor, keeping track of them is that vendor's problem.

jaycjay

"because the bandit is sure to catch his big break any day now."

Not very likely. The $800 worth of tickets in this story means 40 tickets. If he's done that ten times, he has 400. While the odds vary in the different games, the jackpot in scratch-off games is usually around a 1-in-2.5-million shot.

He's more likely won just enough to get drunk, get high, and eat, for a few weeks.

MrCow

sounds like something from Home Alone.

joshuadog

Seems as if while the editors weren't looking, the bandit also made off with the grammar and logic behind yet another incomprehensible Gothamist article which reads like something out of a third grade mock newspaper.