The Nation - News from May 4, 1988

Authorities accused a computer operator from a company that helps run the Pennsylvania lottery with forging a winning $15.2-million ticket and another man with trading it in for the jackpot. Mark S. Herbst, 33, of Harrisburg, was arraigned less than a week after he traded in the ticket for the first $469,989 installment of the prize from a Super 7 drawing last July 15. Herbst and computer operator Henry Arthur Rich, also 33 and from Harrisburg, were being held in lieu of bail. Atty. Gen. LeRoy Zimmerman alleged that Rich used a computer at his firm, Control Data Corp., to identify unclaimed jackpots and to print a copy of the unclaimed winning ticket, which he gave to Herbst. When Herbst claimed the jackpot Thursday, he said he had been using the ticket as a bookmark and checked the numbers after seeing a story about the unclaimed prize.