Brothers Charged In Lotto Scam

I was at a convenience store in the Youngsville/Broussard area a few months back, and there was a lady yelling at the clerk as she exited the store, shouting something to the effect of "that's the second winning ticket that you have stolen from me!  I am going to call the law!".

I don't know what happened in that situation, whether there was a real situation of lottery fraud being perpetrated by the clerk, or if the lady was drunk; but in this Syracuse, NY case, the police are certain that they have a case of lottery fraud.

According to Yahoo! News, the ABC News story (in a nutshell):  two brothers, Andy and Nayel Ashkar (whose family owns a convenience store) told a lottery winner that his ticket was worth $5,000, and that they would give him $4,000 on the spot for it (so that he wouldn't have to deal with the taxes, etc).  The 'winner' agreed, and went off with his money.  In actuality, the ticket was worth $5 MILLION dollars, and the brothers waited until the final moment to cash it in, telling the lottery officials that they were willing to take less if the press wasn't involved.

The lottery officials were skeptical.  They ended up putting out a detailed press release about the men winning the $5m prize, hoping to raise awareness and have the real winner come forward.  A police officer, who had knowledge of the winner through the 'grapevine', was able to come forward and put the real winner in touch with the lottery officials.

Speaking of winning the lottery, does anyone have the numbers from tonight's drawing?

(Via Yahoo, ABC)