NY Police Looking For Two Suspects Accused Of Stealing $7K Worth Of Lottery Tickets

According to the New York Police Department, last Wednesday, two suspects held up a store in Queens and stole about $4,800 worth of lottery tickets — and are believed to be the same two people accused of stealing $2,100 in lotto tickets from a Manhattan business 13 days earlier, on Dec. 26.

The first robbery occurred at about 8:30 p.m. the day after Christmas according to local reports, and the suspects “simulated a firearm” at a store on Eighth Avenue in the West Village police said, and made off on foot with the loot.

The second incident took place in Astoria, Queens, and this time police detailed that the suspects actually pulled out a gun.

Over the weekend, the NYPD released surveillance images and video of the suspects jumping a subway turnstile following the robbery, in hopes of someone identifying the perpetrators. The video shows two people (police described them both as male) covering the lower portion of their faces with the sorts of masks widely worn throughout the COVID pandemic, while also wearing winter coats with the hoods pulled up.

One of them was also wearing sunglasses, leaving no part of their face visible. That suspect was seen carrying an entire plastic display case, containing numerous scratch-offs and possibly other types of lottery tickets.

According to the NYPD, no injuries were reported in either robbery.

What can you even do with stolen tickets?

Stealing lottery tickets and profiting from it is not so simple. Lottery tickets need to be activated by the seller before a win on the ticket can be validated. Also, each ticket has a serial number, and the serial numbers for stolen tickets go into a data base — so good luck cashing a ticket that has been flagged as stolen.

For a ticket thief, their best bets for getting actual cash value are to redeem a ticket worth a modest amount before the vendor has a chance to report it stolen, or to re-sell the tickets to people who are unaware the tickets are “hot.”

Despite those challenges, lottery ticket theft remains a popular form of crime.

In New England last April, authorities apprehended six individuals who had stolen approximately $50,000 worth of tickets from at least 12 convenience stores.

Last September in California, two suspects got busted after using a blowtorch to break into an Oakland store and exit with lottery tickets.

There was also a more sophisticated operation caught in Texas last August, when two teens who worked at a Walmart were charged with stealing $747,933 worth of lottery tickets by creating fake transactions as employees of the store.

As for these latest lottery ticket thefts in New York, anyone with information about the robberies is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).