Most people would think they had it made if they won the lottery. Timothy Elliott probably thought the same thing when he bought a $10 ticket at a Hyannis supermarket that netted him $1 million in the $800 Million Spectacular game. There was only one problem – Timothy was a convicted felon.
In October 2006, Timothy pleaded guilty to unarmed robbery of a Cape Cod bank. He was placed on five year’s probation, but unfortunately, for Timothy, he didn’t read the fine print. The terms of his probation state that he “may not gamble, purchase lottery tickets, or visit an establishment where gaming is conducted, including restaurants where Keno may be played.”
How was Timothy caught red handed with a winning ticket? Well, the lottery routinely checks the names of winners against names of people who owe back taxes, child support, or have committed a crime. That, and the fact that Timothy’s picture was plastered on the Massachusetts Lottery web site with holding his first check for $50,000 probably didn’t help.
A hearing will be held on December 7th to determine if Timothy can keep the money and also if he should be jailed for probation violation.
Okay, so maybe, just maybe Timothy didn’t know that he couldn’t purchase a lottery ticket. But surely this next guy just knew what he was doing was wrong.
A man from Augusta, GA tried to open an account at a Clearwater, SC bank with…a million dollar bill! Yes, Alexander D. Smith, age 31, actually walked into a bank and thought they would let him open an account with a million dollar bill as his deposit.
A bank employee refused to open the account and notified the police. Alexander will be charged with disorderly conduct (he cursed bank employees after their refusal) as well as two counts of forgery – one for trying to deposit the phony bill and one for using a stolen check to pay for items earlier that day.
Just in case you were wondering, our government has never printed a million dollar bill.