{"id":359734,"date":"2026-08-01T06:02:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/359734\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T06:02:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:02:33","slug":"usps-worker-accused-of-stealing-winning-florida-lottery-ticket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/359734\/","title":{"rendered":"USPS Worker Accused of Stealing Winning Florida Lottery Ticket"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">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<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The Florida Lottery Division of Security and the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS OIG) conducted a joint investigation that led to the arrest of Lekaysha Lockhart on July 23.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">According to the Florida Lottery, the investigation began after a player reported that a winning Pick 4 ticket she mailed through the U.S. Postal Service never arrived at its intended destination.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">A Florida Lottery Inspector later determined the ticket had been redeemed on June 19, at the Lottery\u2019s Miami District Office by Lockhart, who was identified as a USPS letter carrier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Investigators said Lockhart admitted after her arrest to stealing the winning ticket and redeeming it at the Florida Lottery\u2019s Miami office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Lockhart faces multiple charges, including grand theft, dealing in stolen property, filing a false claim for payment, two counts of unlawful use of a two-way communications device, and mail theft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The Florida Lottery said the cases will be prosecuted separately because the alleged offenses occurred in multiple judicial circuits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Officials said the Lottery\u2019s Division of Security will continue working with law enforcement partners to investigate fraud and protect players and the integrity of Florida Lottery games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1785564153_378_APP DOWNLOAD LOCAL_1541693885678.jpg_13622062_ver1.0.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A United States Postal Service employee has been arrested after investigators say she stole a winning Florida Lottery&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14817,146603,693,8844,696,14494,220,99193,146596,34680,146604,17481,704,130858,21379,27054,41300,28,30,29,146605,2161,5078,712,27642,15880,54384,6319,49665,97528,132,23588,146597,146598,146599,146600,722,726,45768,3577,24300,8848,1798,6525,67748,27053,146601,146602,62870,14822,732,7982],"class_list":["post-359734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-ambulance","tag-apo","tag-auto","tag-automobile","tag-blue","tag-box","tag-car","tag-civil","tag-courier","tag-deliver","tag-dhl","tag-editorial","tag-emergency","tag-envelope","tag-express","tag-fedex","tag-first-class","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fpo","tag-government","tag-hospital","tag-law","tag-letter","tag-mail","tag-mailman","tag-medical","tag-package","tag-parcel","tag-police","tag-post","tag-postage","tag-postal","tag-postman","tag-postmaster","tag-red","tag-service","tag-shipping","tag-sign","tag-stamp","tag-transport","tag-transportation","tag-truck","tag-united-states-postal-service","tag-ups","tag-us-postal-service","tag-uspo","tag-usps","tag-van","tag-vehicle","tag-white"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359734","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=359734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}