Update: Fort Myers attorney for clerk charged in lottery ticket scam says she is innocent

STORY UPDATE: An attorney for a Fort Myers woman charged with counterfeiting or altering scratch-off lottery tickets at the convenience store where she worked says his client is innocent and, in fact, it was the dispensers that caused the tickets to be scratched.

Wendy Maxine Klinker, 43, is facing a charge of counterfeiting or altering tickets. She was arrested Friday by the Florida Department of The Lottery's Division of Security and released Saturday on $5,000 bond. She will be arraigned June 11.

Rene Suarez, Klinker’s attorney, said his client vehemently denies that she did anything wrong.

"In February of this year it is true that irregularities were found on some of the lotto scratch off tickets that were for sale in the store where Ms. Klinker is an assistant manager," Suarez said. "The store itself reported the damaged tickets and sent them to the Lottery Department."

The state lottery department determined that the rollers in the trays that dispense the tickets were damaged and caused the micro-scratches and replaced the trays, Suarez said.

That information was not included in a report about the tickets issued by the department.

"I have no idea what the Department is talking about regarding video showing anything, and, in fact, the arrest report contains no allegations that store video shows Ms. Klinker 'pocketing' anything." Suarez said.

However, the arrest report does say "the date the suspect was seen engaging in the activity is February 9, 2018, at approximately 5:45 p.m. according to surveillance footage."

Additionally, the Fort Myers attorney said the department can't show any evidence that Klinker claimed any prizes as a result of any wrongdoing because there was no wrongdoing.

"It appears that the Department, in an attempt to preemptively head off public concern that their system is subject to equipment malfunctions, has charged an innocent person and maliciously notified the press to make a spectacle of it all," he said.

Klinker has no criminal history and has been a valued and trusted employee, Suarez said.

"She has not been fired. She is on unpaid leave," he said via an email to The News-Press.."Her boss has told her that as far as Circle K is concerned, they have no evidence of wrongdoing on her part but she can’t be at work until her charges are cleared."

A Florida Department of The Lottery report said that in February a customer complained that a Gold Rush Doubler lottery ticket he purchased had small scratches in the prize box areas. He was given a new ticket.

The Gold Rush Doubler tickets range from $1 to $20 and can pay out from $10,000 to $5,000,000.

Further inspection of tickets at the Circle K store found 12 books had scratched tickets. A total of 83 various scratch-off style lottery tickets with scratches were found, according to Klinker's arrest report.

The face value of the losing tickets was $609 and ranged from a $1 Gold Rush Doubler ticket to $10,000 a Week for Life tickets valued at $20 each.

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The Department of The Lottery report said the tickets were sent to the Florida Lottery Ink Application Laboratory for examination but that was later deemed unnecessary due to "scratches blatantly placed in various places to expose play data."

Store security video showed Klinker on Feb. 9 scratching the tickets, the report said, while she was working at the store.

The report also said Klinker kept the winners and placed the losing tickets back into the dispensers.

Keri Nucatola, deputy director of communications for digital marketing, said the investigation remains active.

It was not known how many affected tickets might have been sold, Nucatola added, or if it would even be possible to determine if a scratched-off losing ticket had been scratched before being sold.

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