Kira Enders, left, and Dakota Jones are accused of taping together two lottery tickets into one to make it seem like a $1 million winner. The game was the lottery’s scratch-off game 500X The Cash, middle. (Mug shots Escambia County Jail; Ticket: Florida Lottery)
A Florida couple allegedly tried to pull a fast one on lottery officials when they taped together a scratch-off ticket and passed it off as a $1 million winner. Spoiler alert: It didn’t work.
According to an affidavit, 36-year-old Kira Lee Enders on March 1 went to the Florida Lottery’s Pensacola office and claimed she won a $1 million prize from the 500X The Cash scratch off ticket.
“The ticket had obvious alterations and is crudely pieced together from two separate actual scratch-off tickets,” Escambia County Sheriff’s deputies wrote in the affidavit.
Deputies allege that Enders ripped the two tickets, which were non-winners, and put them together to make it look like she had a winning ticket. She wrote her full name and address on the ticket and signed it under the penalty of perjury, deputies wrote.
Florida lottery agents investigated the case along with detectives from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, which is in the Sunshine State’s Panhandle. Agents and deputies called in Enders and her boyfriend, 31-year-old Dakota Jones, on March 11 for an interview, they said. Cops immediately detained the pair when they arrived and separated them, according to authorities.
Enders allegedly told cops she realized she had the “winner” when she scratched off the ticket at her home in DeFuniak Springs but couldn’t remember where she bought it. She tried to go to three different businesses to have the ticket scanned but was unsuccessful, she reportedly said. She planned on sharing the winnings with Jones. Detectives then asked her how the ticket got ripped and she claimed it had gotten wet in the rain and she tried to scratch it off before it was dry, causing it to tear, the affidavit said. She allegedly stated she taped the ticket herself.
The detectives then confronted her with the truth: That the ticket allegedly was a non-winning ticket made into a winning ticket.
“What, they don’t go together?,” she reportedly said.
Enders continued to insist that the two pieces of the ticket went together and she did not intentionally commit any fraud because doing so “would be dumb and that’s how you go to jail,” according to the affidavit. Enders also claimed her boyfriend had nothing to do with the fake ticket.
Jones in an interview with detectives said that he thinks Enders bought the tickets at a Winn-Dixie near their house and they got wet so she took a blow dryer to dry them.
“S[uspect] Jones advised that he told S/Enders that she shouldn’t have put tape on the ticket because it looks like she altered it,” detectives wrote. “…S/Jones stated he told S/Enders that they weren’t going to accept that ticket because it looks ‘jank’ but the front desk told them that a damaged ticket takes longer because it has to go through security. S/Jones stated that they are honest people and they aren’t into fraud.”
But Jones allegedly then changed his story: He said he and Enders were walking near their house when they saw half of a torn ticket on the ground, and then walked about 50 yards and found another half. Enders taped together the ticket and it appeared they won $1 million, Jones reportedly said. He also allegedly said he nor his Enders play the lottery very often, which contradicted what his girlfriend told detectives.
Cops then went back to Enders to tell her that her boyfriend told them a completely different story about how they obtained the tickets, the affidavit said. She allegedly continued to insist that she bought the ticket.
Jones and Enders were arrested Thursday on charges of forgery/altering of lottery ticket with intent to defraud and grand theft in the first-degree $100,000 or more. They have a court date scheduled for May 10.
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