{"id":359029,"date":"2026-07-31T16:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/359029\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:56:07","slug":"postal-worker-accused-of-stealing-cashing-winning-florida-lottery-ticket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/359029\/","title":{"rendered":"Postal worker accused of stealing, cashing winning Florida Lottery ticket"},"content":{"rendered":"

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A USPS letter carrier is accused of stealing a winning Pick 4 ticket from the mail and fraudulently redeeming it at a Florida Lottery <\/a>office.<\/p>\n

A United States Postal Service employee has been arrested after investigators say she stole a winning Florida Lottery ticket from the mail and fraudulently claimed the prize.<\/p>\n

The joint investigation by the Florida Lottery Division of Security and the U.S. Postal Service<\/a> Office of Inspector General began after a lottery player reported that a winning Pick 4 ticket she mailed never reached its intended destination.<\/p>\n

A Florida Lottery inspector determined the ticket was redeemed June 19 at the Lottery\u2019s Miami District Office by Lekaysha Lockhart, who investigators later identified as a USPS letter carrier.<\/p>\n

Florida Lottery special agents and postal investigators conducted a joint operation that led to Lockhart\u2019s arrest July 23, according to a Florida Lottery news release.<\/p>\n

Investigators said Lockhart admitted after her arrest that she stole the winning ticket and redeemed it at the district office.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A USPS letter carrier is accused of stealing a winning Pick 4 ticket from the mail and fraudulently redeeming it at a Florida Lottery office.<\/p>\n

The release did not disclose the value of the ticket, where it was mailed from or where it was supposed to be delivered.<\/p>\n

Lockhart faces charges of grand theft, dealing in stolen property, filing a false claim for payment, mail theft and two counts of unlawful use of a two-way communications device.<\/p>\n

Because the alleged crimes occurred in multiple judicial circuits, the cases will be prosecuted separately, lottery officials said.<\/p>\n

See also: Florida man gets 2 years for threats to kill Trump, federal officials<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOur players deserve confidence that every Lottery prize is protected through strong security measures and diligent oversight,\u201d Florida Lottery Secretary Reginald D. Dixon said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Dixon credited the Lottery\u2019s security division, the Postal Service inspector general\u2019s office and the Broward County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a> with investigating the case and making the arrest.<\/p>\n

The Florida Lottery said its Division of Security works with law enforcement agencies to investigate suspected theft, fraud and other crimes involving lottery tickets and prizes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A USPS letter carrier is accused of stealing a winning Pick 4 ticket…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-359029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}