What Happened in Florida
On June 14, 2026, a customer walked into a Walmart in DeLand, Florida with a scratch ticket that had won him $2,700. He handed it to an employee, Tameka Hall, at the lottery counter to verify and process the claim.
Hall told him the prize amount was too large for the store to pay out directly, and gave him a receipt with instructions on where to collect his winnings. What she didn't do was return the ticket — which he would need to actually claim the prize. Instead, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Global News, she folded the ticket and slipped it into the pocket of her uniform vest.
When the customer realized he no longer had the ticket, he returned to the store. The ticket couldn't be found. Store security footage then showed Hall pocketing it after handing the customer his instructions.
Hall was arrested the following day and charged with felony grand theft. She was released on a $2,500 bond. The ticket was eventually found in her car.
The key detail: The ticket was unsigned. There was no way to prove on the face of the ticket that the customer was the rightful owner. That made it easy to steal — and harder to recover.
This Isn't the First Time
In July 2024, a Tennessee gas station clerk named Meer Patel pulled an even bolder version of the same scam. A customer asked him to scan two scratch tickets to check if they were winners. One was worth $40 — Patel handed that one back. The other had a $1 million prize. Patel told the customer it wasn't a winner, dropped it in the garbage, and sent him on his way.
Surveillance footage later showed Patel fishing the ticket out of the trash, pocketing it, and attempting to claim the $1 million himself. He was charged with theft over $250,000.
In both cases, the victims handed over tickets without signing them — and in both cases, the clerk who scanned the ticket was then holding a piece of paper with no name on it, worth thousands of dollars.
Why a Signature Matters
A lottery ticket is, legally speaking, a bearer instrument. That means whoever possesses it can claim the prize — unless you've established ownership another way. In most Canadian provinces and U.S. states, signing the back of the ticket is the primary mechanism for doing exactly that.
When you sign a ticket:
- You create a record of ownership that's visible on the ticket itself
- Any attempt by someone else to claim it requires forging your signature — a separate criminal offence
- Lottery corporations typically require the signature to match the claimant's ID for large prizes
- If the ticket is lost or stolen, you have a much stronger case that it belongs to you
An unsigned ticket, on the other hand, belongs to whoever is holding it. That's the entire problem.
What Canadian Lottery Corporations Say
Every major Canadian lottery — OLG, BCLC, WCLC, and Loto-Québec — recommends signing the back of your ticket immediately after purchase or scratching. For prizes above a certain threshold (typically $1,000), they require in-person redemption at a lottery office with government-issued ID, and the signature on the ticket must match.
For smaller prizes claimed at retailers, the process is faster and less formal — which is exactly where the risk is highest. A retail clerk scanning a small-to-medium winner is the most common scenario for this type of theft, because there's less oversight and no ID check.
Canadian thresholds vary by province. In Ontario, prizes over $1,000 must be claimed at an OLG Prize Centre or by mail. In BC, prizes over $10,000 require a BCLC claims centre visit. In WCLC provinces, prizes over $999.90 require a WCLC claims centre. Always check with your province's lottery before heading to a retailer with a large winner.
The Simple Rule: Sign Before You Scan
The moment you think a ticket might be a winner — sign the back. Don't hand it to anyone unsigned. It takes three seconds and costs nothing, and it's the single most effective protection against the scenario that played out in Florida and Tennessee.
If a retailer needs to scan it for verification, that's fine — but sign it first. No legitimate lottery retailer will refuse to scan a signed ticket, and any who objects should raise an immediate red flag.
The rule: Sign it. Then scan it. In that order, every time.
Other Precautions Worth Taking
Beyond signing, a few other habits protect you when checking or claiming a ticket at retail:
- Never let the ticket out of your sight. Watch the scanner display confirm the prize amount yourself. Most lottery terminals show the result on a customer-facing screen.
- Know what you're owed before you walk up. If you've already scratched the ticket, you know the prize amount. If the clerk quotes you a different number, something is wrong.
- Photograph your winning ticket before you go anywhere to claim it. If it's ever disputed, you have a record of the ticket number.
- For large prizes, go directly to the lottery office — not a retailer. Retailers can only pay out up to a certain amount anyway, and you don't want to be haggling at a gas station counter over a $10,000 winner.
The Bottom Line
Scratch ticket theft by retail clerks is rare — but it happens, and it happens specifically because most players don't sign their tickets. The victims in the Florida and Tennessee cases did nothing wrong except skip one small step that would have made their tickets worthless to anyone but themselves.
Sign the back. Every time.
Sources
- Florida Walmart employee arrested after winning lottery ticket allegedly stolen — Global News, June 2026
- Tennessee store clerk allegedly stole $1M winning lottery ticket — Global News, July 2024
- Volusia County arrest record — Tameka Hall — Volusia County Division of Corrections