Commentary
Tamara Kelly
One of my favorite shows to watch on TV is “Dumb Criminals.”
No matter how intelligent, or the lack of, the criminals never fail to make it comical with their halfhearted, last minute illegal activities.
The lack of planning seems to be the reiterating problem. Not strategizing their robbery with every possible angle makes me think that most of the
“dumb criminals” are rookies or ill experienced thieves.
Although I don’t have a lot of experience with stealing or law-breaking activity, I can’t help but wonder why the attempt to pull one over is so shamelessly thought out.
Recently, Lakewood thieves were added to this long and amusing list of epic failures.
On Sunday, April first, a local corner grocery market was robbed. The burglars made off with a large amount of lottery tickets.
Anyone who has bought a ticket knows that there is a barcode identifying and numbering each distinct ticket.
Every store counts the number of tickets sold and the amount they have left over every day.
Also if the store is broken into, like this one was, the tickets are immediately reported as stolen.
Another point is when a ticket is stolen it’s reported to the lottery commission and flagged as a stolen ticket.
The commission goes even further notifying retailers with daily updates through the computerized gaming system, making it nearly impossible to get away with cashing in the “hot” tickets.
While I’m sure many people would be thrilled to win and I’m sure that’sexactly what the thieves had in mind. It only gives them a short amount of time to cash them in.
The time frame being from the break in to the moment they’re reported, which is usually only a few hours; at best. While this may seem like enough time, there’s also the fact that large sums have to be obtained through the state lottery commission.
If cashing them still appeals to the robbers, the second thought may need to be observed; their chances of being caught have just increased.
Whether a motivated criminal is attempting a “smash and grab” job or a well planned out heist one thing is for certain the state lottery has a well calculated and designed back up strategy for stealing.
No matter how funny or appealing, stupid criminals may be, it seems the odds aren’t in the favor when it comes to stealing state lottery tickets.