DES MOINES — For more than a year while he worked at the Brick Street Market in Bondurant, Iowa, Matthew Hinrichs quietly stole lottery tickets, cashing in at least $28,000 in illegitimate prize money, prosecutors say.
When he was finally caught in 2016, Hinrichs pleaded guilty to two felony counts of fraud and was ordered to pay back those winnings, plus nearly $5,000 more.
Lottery officials say their “layers of security” allowed them to track Hinrichs’ activity, providing data that was invaluable to prosecutors in obtaining the conviction.
But critics see the case far differently, saying Hinrichs’ crime could have been spotted much sooner — or prevented altogether — if the Iowa Lottery had fixed weaknesses in its system that were spotted years earlier.