Kira Enders and boyfriend Dakota Jones are accused of trying to pass off a “fraudulently altered ticket” as a million dollar winner.
A Florida couple claimed they won the state lottery — but instead of the million-dollar prize, they only won a free trip to jail, after being accused of “crudely” making a fake winning ticket.
Kira Enders, 36, and her boyfriend Dakota Jones, 32, were arrested and charged with forgery/alteration of a lottery ticket with intent to defraud, passing a forged/altered state lottery ticket and larceny-grand theft of $100,000 or more, according to the Escamba County Sheriff’s Office, via FOX 35.
Authorities claim the pair tried passing off a taped-together $50 scratch-off ticket as the big winner for the 500X The Cash game last month. Per FOX, the two separate tickets had been torn horizontally and then laminated together.
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“[The Florida Lottery] had an individual that thought that they could, they could crudely take two tickets and put them together and pretend as if they were a million dollar winner,” Escambia Sheriff Chip Simmons told CBS News.
Simmons also said it was Enders who turned in the ticket on March 1, but lottery officials spotted it as a fake almost immediately.
“I don’t think this is gonna be a made-for-TV movie type of situation because, uh, it was clear to the lottery officials, and obviously clear to us, that she had taken two tickets with different, you know, one side had one serial number, the other side had the other serial number on it,” Simmons continued. “Especially whenever you pretend like you’ve won a million dollars, they’re gonna take a look at this ticket.”
The two were arrested after Enders reportedly asked for an update on the prize money and was asked to meet with a special agent at the lottery office. After they were separated for interviews, the two allegedly told two different stories for how they came into possession of the ticket, according to the arrest affidavit.
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Enders allegedly told authorities she bought the ticket at Winn-Dixie, claiming it got wet and ripped when trying to scratch it. “What, they don’t go together?” she reportedly said, telling deputies the situation was “insane” and “blows her mind,” while expressing confusion. She also allegedly said she was only trying to salvage the ticket by taping it together and planned to share the prize with her boyfriend and open a salon.
Jones, meanwhile, reportedly said the pair found the two pieces — already ripped — on the ground. Per the affidavit, he told authorities he warned Enders against taping the pieces together because it “looks jank.” He also allegedly claimed his girlfriend did know the numbers on the top and bottom didn’t match, but he still believed they had won $1 million.
He reportedly told deputies the two “are honest people and they aren’t into fraud” and said “it was not their intentions to get over on the lottery.”
The two have since been released from Escambia County Jail, with bonds of $20,000 for Enders and $17,500 for Jones. They’re due in court on May 10.
“If you’re gonna try to claim a million dollars, you’ve got to do a lot better than this,” said Simmons. “You’re not a lottery winner, you’re a criminal.”
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