Florida Employee Accused of Stealing 456 Lottery Tickets, Winning $40,000

An employee at a Winn-Dixie supermarket in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, faces charges of grand theft and organized fraud for allegedly stealing hundreds of scratch-off lottery tickets and claiming nearly $40,000 in prizes. Authorities identified the suspect as 45-year-old Essie Latrell Davis of West Palm Beach.

The investigation began in July 2025 after the supermarket's management noticed significant discrepancies in the ticket inventory. A regional asset protection manager reviewed internal security footage, which reportedly showed Davis removing both individual tickets and entire rolls from the dispenser and a secure safe. Over several weeks, between late July and mid-September 2025, she is accused of taking 456 loose tickets and 12 rolls, totaling over 500 tickets and a loss of $32,506 for the store.

According to police statements, Davis allegedly used a Florida Lottery app on her phone to scan the tickets and identify which ones were winners. The accusation further states that she was captured on surveillance activating tickets from a store computer, then using the app to sort through them, discarding losers and concealing winners on her person. The scheme reportedly occurred at a Winn-Dixie branch that has since closed.

Authorities traced some of the winning tickets to Publix stores in West Palm Beach, where they had been cashed. By cross-referencing Florida Lottery records with security footage from those retailers, investigators confirmed transactions that matched winning ticket data, with payouts ranging from $100 to $500 per ticket. This reconstruction strengthened the hypothesis that tickets stolen from Winn-Dixie were subsequently redeemed elsewhere. When confronted by a regional manager on September 17, 2025, Davis allegedly responded, "do what you have to do," before leaving the store, leaving her phone behind.