A Mountain Home woman hit the jackpot in the Arkansas State Lottery but, law enforcement officials claim, she did it illegally.
Thirty-one-year-old Mary Olivieri worked in an area convenience store and is accused of activating books of lottery “scratch off” tickets without paying for them.
Olivieri’s attorney, Paul Bayless, appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Monday and entered a plea of not guilty to the charges against his client.
She is alleged to have taken winning tickets from the unpaid for books to various local retailers and cashed them. The majority of the tickets, almost $54,000 worth, were cashed out at the Mountain Home Walmart.
An investigator with the State Lottery Commission provided information allowing local authorities to calculate the extent of the alleged theft.
Olivieri told investigators she paid for the tickets and “could not understand where the money was going.”
Loss prevention personnel at Walmart obtained video from surveillance cameras showing Olivieri’s husband cashing tickets from an activated but unpaid for ticket book.
Olivieri is charged with lottery fraud and theft of property. She is free on $50,000 bond.
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