Winners? Bingo! They’re Busted : Deputies Make Book on 200 Suspects in Lottery Sting

For more than 200 suspected and convicted felons, the offer proved irresistible--100 free lottery tickets, with a chance to win as much as $50,000 in cash.

But what was billed as a marketing survey to evaluate the state’s lottery games was in reality a sting operation run this week by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. And the “Big-Play” winners ended up as old-fashioned losers--booked at the sheriff’s Lakewood jail on warrants charging them with everything from probation violation to manslaughter.

“A while back, we were talking over what sort of an operation to set up,” Sheriff’s Sgt. John F. Andrews said this morning, explaining how the lottery scam was chosen. “We decided, let’s go with greed. It works every time.”

So the officers--frustrated thespians all--set up a storefront operation in Bellflower, complete with balloons bearing the logo of a fictitious lottery game called “Big-Play,” posters of “$50,000 winners” (undercover Sheriff’s Department employees), and lots of jolly, cheering “Southbay Marketing Services “ workers (undercover deputies) to welcome the “winners.”

Even after being handcuffed, some of the stunned victims of the sting continued to hope.

“Some of them tell us they know they’re under arrest, but they ask, “Do I still get my tickets?’ ” Deputy Bernadette L. Roberts recalled. “One gentleman, even as he was being booked, still kept hoping he was on Candid Camera. One woman asked if we could send her winnings to Sibyl Brand,” the woman’s jail in East Los Angeles.

Luis Moreno, a 24-year-old Cambria resident wanted for failure to appear at his scheduled arraignment on a drug-possession charge, was in many respects typical of those invited to the tidy offices at 10042 Artesia Place during the five-day operation that ended today.

Like about 5,000 other Southern Californians wanted on outstanding warrants, Moreno had received a letter in the mail a few weeks ago.

“Congratulations,” the letter said. “You have been randomly selected by computer as a WINNER! Your guaranteed prize includes 100 FREE lottery tickets. Of course, this means $CASH$ for you, and a chance to spin your way to a fortune. . . . Simply call our Hotline at (1-800) 468-PLAY as soon as possible. . . .”

Along with more than 500 others, Moreno called the number and set up an appointment. His was set for 9 a.m. today.

Like about half of those who made appointments, Moreno showed up as promised, to be greeted at the door by a group of friendly “Southbay employees” who shook his hand, offered him some coffee and cookies and gave him a chair to sit in while they checked his identification to make sure he was the right Luis Moreno.

“We’ve had a lot of people who have tried to scam us,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Scauzillo said. “They walk in and try to pretend they’re someone who’s gotten one of the invitations. We have to send them away.”

While the deputies checked, Moreno rubbed elbows happily with a mob of news reporters and photographers, all invited by the Sheriff’s Department to watch the sting operation. Like the other “winners,” Moreno was told that the news media were there to record his good fortune.

A couple of deputies posing as winners wandered out through the front door to the good wishes of all those gathered. Then a beaming Scauzillo burst noisily into the room.

“Congratulations!” Scauzillo shouted. “Luis, you’re a winner!”

Then, as a crescendo of applause mounted from an unseen audience in a back room, Moreno was led around a screen and into the noisy room at the rear.

There, to his silent chagrin, he discovered that the people who’d been clapping and cheering were uniformed deputies. And instead of tickets, he got a set of plastic handcuffs.