News writer
Imagine heading to your local gas station to pick up a lottery ticket, only to find out some of them mysteriously vanished. That's exactly what happened at a BP gas station in Kentucky, sparking an investigation into stolen lottery tickets.
What started as a missing ticket mystery quickly unraveled, revealing a shocking twist when surveillance footage helped identify a surprising suspect. Now, authorities are piecing together how 65 tickets went missing and what led to the arrest of one of the store's employees.
Investigation into the stolen lottery tickets
On January 29, 2025, officers from the Princeton Police responded to a report of multiple Kentucky Lottery tickets being stolen from a BP gas station located on US 62 in Princeton. At that time, the store manager informed officers that some tickets were missing from the lottery rolls, and they also noticed some tickets were taken from the ends of the lottery rolls.
Officials launched an investigation, and the police said an audit had been completed, which revealed that 65 tickets were missing. Detectives from the Kentucky Lottery Commission also helped the Princeton Police officers during this investigation.
The suspect was determined, and the arrest was made
According to Assistant Princeton Police Chief Shane Allison, the investigation showed that matching tickets from the stolen batch were cashed out at two locations in Princeton and two locations in Madisonville. Thanks to surveillance footage from these locations, police were able to identify 54-year-old Traci Kemp, an employee at the BP gas station, as the suspect.
Around 9:00 a.m. CT on February 13, Kemp was arrested. During an interview with authorities, Kemp allegedly admitted to stealing the lottery tickets.
Kemp was booked into the Caldwell County Jail and charged with 65 counts of lottery theft/forgery, officials said.
Lottery crimes happening in Florida also
Kentucky isn't the only state dealing with lottery crimes, as a Florida man has now been sentenced to 44 months in federal prison for taking part in a nationwide lottery fraud scheme that was targeted at the elderly. He was also ordered to pay $234,995 in restitution to the victims.
The defendant, 34-year-old Akiel Doman of North Miami Beach, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud and to criminal contempt for violating a court order.
The lottery fraud scheme took place from May 2020 to July 2022, when Doman and others repeatedly called victims throughout the country and falsely told them they had won millions of dollars in a lottery. The victims were told to pay fees or taxes to claim their winnings. They were given instructions on how and to whom to send the money to, which happened to be direct deposits into Doman's bank accounts.
Doman also happened to violate a consent decree that was entered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 2019. This decree prohibited Doman from participating in lottery frauds.
Enjoy playing the Kentucky Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.
Comments