Newscast helps police capture men who were buying lotto tickets with slugs

A television newscast Friday evening helped catch two men, who Williamsburg police believe are responsible for stealing $1,300 worth of scratch off lottery tickets from the Pilot in Williamsburg Wednesday including one ticket that they cashed in for $300 at the store.

Williamsburg Public Affairs Officer Shawn Jackson said that the men were arrested at a Pilot store in Georgetown only minutes after the story aired on WLEX Channel 18 news at 6 p.m. Friday.

"Within a matter of minutes, somebody called from Pilot in Georgetown and said that the guys were in there doing the same thing at that very moment," Jackson said.

Scott County Sheriff’s Deputy J. Nettles responded to the store and found the two men in possession of an illegal device called a "slug," which was used to rob the machine, in addition to cocaine and numerous lottery tickets, Jackson said.
"It was determined through the investigation that these gentlemen had been doing this all along I-75," Jackson said. "There were even receipts found from stations as far south as Georgia and as far north as northern Kentucky.

"It is untelling how much money these guys have ripped off from these places along I-75."

About 6:12 p.m., Nettles charged both Charles Robert Smith Jr., 39, of 114 Savoy Church Road, and Fred R. Jackson Jr., 43, of Jellico, with possession of a controlled substance, first-degree unlawful use of slugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, and theft by unlawful taking. Smith was also charged with giving an officer a false name or address.

Officer Jackson obtained arrest warrants Monday afternoon charging Smith and Fred Jackson with unlawful use of a slug and theft by unlawful taking over $500.

He said other charges are possible and that the case would likely be presented to the Whitley County Grand Jury next month.
"Other charges are possible as the investigation progresses," Jackson said.

Both men are currently lodged in the Scott County Detention Center, but will be transported back to Whitley County to answer charges here.

On Feb. 23, Jackson said that thieves used an improvised device at the Williamsburg Pilot to get tickets from a machine that sells scratch off lottery tickets without paying at the Pilot Travel Center in Williamsburg. They reportedly went to the store on two different occasions that day, once about 6:30 p.m. and again about midnight.

In all about $1,300 worth of tickets were taken.

"They added insult to injury by cashing a $300 winner before they left Pilot," Jackson said. "They were real flitterty. They were real friendly with the cashiers.

"They came in. They had a game plan. They knew what they were doing and they knew what they were coming for."
Police pulled photos off video taken at the store, were unable to identify the suspects, and released photos of the suspects Friday.

"It is untelling how much money these guys ripped off," Officer Jackson said. "It was based on good cooperation and team work between the media, in this case Channel 18 in Lexington, the Scott County Sheriff’s Department and the Williamsburg Police Department all working together on this to bring these guys to justice and put them behind bars."

Jackson noted that the two suspects were caught in possession of cocaine, and that he suspects the thefts were to support a drug habit.

Jackson said that local police are very familiar with Smith, who was wanted by his department in connection with a pursuit in southern Whitley County in July 2008.

Jellico police chased Smith into Kentucky where he rammed a Jellico police cruiser and then fled into the woods on foot. Despite a lengthy search that lasted for several hours, police were unable to locate Smith.

Officer Jackson said that Fred Jackson had been convicted of this type of offense before and had served some prison time before getting out on parole.

Ironically, one of his parole conditions was to teach the Kentucky Lottery how it could avoid getting ripped off by people like him, Officer Jackson noted.