The lottery is the quickest and hardest way to get rich. For some, it is simply luck to win, for others it’s seen as fate.
Eddie Tipton, director of information security for the lottery, devised a brilliant plan to win the $14 million jackpot prize. It ALMOST went through as planned, but he didn’t think a few parts of the scheme through correctly.
Here are the details via The Daily Mail:
Prosecutors argued Tipton had access to the room housing the computer that picked Hot Lotto numbers and lied about being out of state.
Prosecutors say he used an intricate system to make sure he would win and installed a self-destructing hack program to make sure the Random Number Generator selected his number in December 2010.
Then, authorities released a convenience store video in October which purported to show the mystery winner, in an attempt to help identify him, at which point a former co-worker of Tipton’s subsequently contacted authorities and tipped them off.
Authorities say Tipton contacted two men in Texas asking for help to claim the jackpot anonymously.
It was only after he was arrested that police began to look into whether or not he had tampered with any equipment, at which point they claim it became clear he had used his computer skills to make certain he won.
Tipton reportedly told a coworker he had created a root kit shortly before he won the lottery, a self-destructing program that can do anything and then disappear without a trace.
As for why he is never seen on the security camera installing this kit, prosecutors claim the cameras were programmed to change the way they record that day, and that Tipton was one of five people who could do this.
Tipton should’ve just had someone he could really trust claim the prize with the ticket. They could’ve split the money and bask in their new-found millions. It’s amazing that he could create this system to pick the numbers he wanted it to. His mistake of claiming the ticket himself, is now costing him up to ten years in prison.