On January [music] 18th, 2025, deputies responded to a Walmart after a report of internal theft involving thousands of dollars in lottery tickets. But as officers began asking questions, the explanation [music] quickly started to unravel, revealing a pattern that had been going on for months. Do you have any brown baggies, please? All right. So, what happened? I just was at a store, man. I was taking books. You were taking what? Uh scratch-offs. Okay. I took them and I was scanning them all to activate the books. Okay. And I would go and redeem them. Where do you go to redeem them? Publix? Huh? Publix. Publix? So, is there a special location? Uh no, I was just various Publix. Which one the last Publix you used? >> I honestly I don't remember. Okay. I've done it. When did you start? December. December? How much money in total was it you stole? 40,000. 40,000? Yeah. What did you What did you do with the money? Honestly, invest in my business, pay bills. How much money you make here? Every week, 400. 400 every week? Not every every 2 weeks. Every 2 weeks, $400? Yeah. How do you survive on that? I'm not accepting an excuse to do that. What do you mean? I I I get I get it. It's just You're working part-time here? Yeah. You have kids? No. Do you have a girlfriend? Do you live together? Does she work? Does she work? Okay. So, are you It's tough. One I don't know if I can find at least $200 a month, $200. $2,000 $200 every 2 weeks? How many hours do you work here? Uh I was working 30 hours a week. But I after Christmas like most of the jobs, I always got cut. So, let me ask you why did you do that? I needed the money to Yeah, the money On a regular basis, how many scratch off how many tickets you would scratch did you get? Um I would do like five or six. Five or six? How much money did you win? Like when you scratch tickets on average? A couple thousand. And you started in December. And today is January 18th, 2019. Is it you've been hearing from us every day you come here? You know it's you still owe money from the state, right? Not just from California. I know. I'm just ready to pay it back. In total 40 40,500 tickets. How much December? When was the last time you scratched scratch off? Last time I did Last week. How much money was that? A month. I won 2,000. So, you never been arrested? No. Are you on probation right now? Yep. I mean I'm not saying it's good it's not bad. >> no. Listen, I was paying the same way I was street the same way I was with them in there like I'm just You're not a bad person. Just learn from Yeah, that's why So, just learn from it. Yeah. All right, we're going to take you to our station and then we'll take it from there. Thank you. I'll talk to you in jail. Okay. Where you going? Not long after the suspect was brought in for a more detailed interview. See anyone? >> All right, I'm going to check the camera. All right. Uh the deputy that I guess made contact with you, Deputy Charles. Did he read you Miranda? Yeah. All right, and you want to talk to me about what happened. So basically I worked at the liquor store and for the last month and a half I was scanning in scratch-off tickets and taking >> Explain that. What do you mean scanning in? I'm not scanning in. Activating Like I Like Like someone purchased them. No, when I say activating I mean like activating the book itself and basically I would I would take them Okay. after being activated cuz once they're activated you can scan it and cash it out and everything like that and I was cashing them out at various places. Okay, when did you start doing this? Um It's been about a better half of 2 months I think. 2 3 months. Sometime in November time? Yeah. Think before Thanksgiving? I want to say yeah, yeah. And this is all at the same place? Yes. What kind of lottery tickets? Uh 500 Those Those $50 orange $50 500 times cash. So you paid $50 for a ticket? Yeah. Each ticket cost 50 bucks? Yes. You got tickets. What's it called? $50 500 times cash. X cash. All right, so I'm going to let you know they They got video of you doing all this. How much do you think you took in the 2 and 1/2 months? Well like the number of lottery tickets? Or I mean the number of scratchers? >> The number of lottery tickets, uh the value. You know, each ticket's 500 bucks, so 10 tickets is $5,000. So, I think I 40 40,000 dollars worth. Worth is what I was told, yes. You were told? Yeah. How much is in a book or a block? These two each each book costs 1,500. 1,500? And how many books did you take? I don't know that by heart. So, that would be what, 30 books? How big is a book? It's like this. It's like that. Half an inch to 1 inch? Yeah. Try to take some. And you take one each time or what you do? I take like four to six four to six each time. Four to six? Six. And so, that would be like $9,000 a time. Yeah. How many times did you do it, do you think? I did it too often to tell the exact number. Okay, one. I will be able to tell you once I get all the video. Okay, two. They said they got you back doing it for months, and they estimated 40 40,500. $40,500 is what they estimated. Yeah. And this is all [clears throat] from that Walmart liquor store? Anyone else do it? No. What did do with the tickets? Cashed them all. Where? Publix's. Any Publix? What Publix? Any Publix. Particularly where do you usually go? I didn't have a specific area that I stuck to. Did you ever stick to one Publix? >> No. I mean like consistently go to that one like five times and not just randomly. >> No, it's just at random. You didn't go to like the one by your house a lot a lot? No. And what happens with that? You just go there and they give you the money? So if you have Well, if you get $9,000 a block and say half of them win. How much is that? What do you mean? Like like how much >> $500 $50 a ticket. Mhm. And it it If you win, what do you get? $500 or more? Sometimes it'll just be 100, sometimes it'll just be 500. It's just 100 to a 500 at the most. How much do you think you got total on cashing these things out? I did that a long ways right? 40,000. 40,000? Yeah. But if you took $40,500 worth of tickets, it's it's got to be you must have got more than that. I probably I'm not like I but the I don't know the numbers. I'll say this. I I did everything but I don't know the numbers of like the exact amount to to the dollar. And they give you cash cash? Yeah. What do you do with the cash? Pay bills. I've done it. Any checking account or anything? Yeah. What checking account do you put it in? My Chase bank account. Chase bank? Yeah. What bank you bank at? Chase. No, I mean which bank? What do you mean? Which branch? Oh, I don't have a specific branch. Where did you open your account? Um I want to say Pines Boulevard in Sunrise. Pines Boulevard? Yeah. There's no Pines Boulevard in Sunrise. Um Okay. Damn. This is I get laughed at all the time about my bad my my um directional skills. You know what I'm saying? So >> huh? You know what city? It should be Plantation. So, okay. Do you Are you familiar with the Plantation area? Sort of. Okay. So, do you know where Broward Mall is? Yeah. Okay. So, the Chase is in that area. Over by TGI Friday's or Yes. Down by 595. By Friday's. I'm just guessing there's a Chase there cuz there's everything is in that little block. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, there is. You I know you're probably looking for a different way to explain that, but Uh how much of money you have left? Nothing right now. I don't have anything. Maybe a thousand before 4,000 at most. Yeah. Did you do it with anybody else at all? No, me. No. There was no one No accomplices. You're not giving the tickets to anybody. You're not selling them. No. How'd you come up with this idea? I just thought about it on a random day. How do I get more money? I did myself. Did you get it off of TikTok or something? No. Television? Mhm. I did. Just very creative? I guess you could say that, yeah. You ever been arrested? No. Never. Not once. Who do you live with? Uh I don't live anywhere. I live with my spouse in at her house. Not her house, but her family members' house. And you guys getting married? No. Do you have a girlfriend? Uh Yeah. All right. All right. The suspect was ultimately charged with grand theft in the second degree. According to court records, instead of serving prison time, the court withheld adjudication and placed him on 5 years of probation, along with an order to repay over [music] $40,000 in restitution. If he successfully completes probation and pays the [music] full amount, he may avoid a formal felony conviction. However, any violation could result in the court revoking probation [music] and imposing a sentence of up to 15 years in prison. The case highlights how [music] financial pressure and poor decisions can quickly escalate into serious legal consequences. As always, all individuals are presumed innocent until [music] proven guilty in a court of law. If you found this video informative, consider subscribing for more real-world body cam footage and breakdowns.