new york times magazine (may /, 2018), copyright
© 2018 by new york times co., nytimes.com.Colorado, Eddie stayed late in his
messy, computer-filled office. He set
a test computer to run the program
over and over again and wrote down
all the potential winning numbers on
a yellow legal pad.
The next day, No-
vember 23, 2005, he
handed the pad to
his brother, who was
headed to Colorado on
a trip. “These numbers
have a good chance of
winning based on my
analysis,” he said. “Play
them. Play them all.”O
n a clear summer
day in Des Moines
last year, Eddie Tipton, who was
then 54, trudged up the stairs of the
Polk County Courthouse. His hands
were shoved in his pockets, his head
down. He had accepted a plea deal
for masterminding the massive lottery
scam—one count of ongoing criminal
conduct, part of a package deal that
gave his brother only 75 days. Eddie
was here for his sentencing.
In statements to prosecutors, he
painted himself as a kind of codingRobin Hood, stealing from the lot-
tery and helping people in need: his
brother, who had five daughters; his
friend who’d just gotten engaged. “I
didn’t really need the money,” Eddie
said. The judge noted
that Eddie seemed to
rationalize his actions—
that he didn’t think it
was necessarily illegal,
just taking advantage
of a hole in the system,
sort of like counting
cards at a casino.
The judge sentenced
Eddie to a maximum of
25 years in prison. The
brothers’ restitution to
the various state lotter-
ies came to $2.2 million, even though,
according to his attorney, Eddie him-
self pocketed only around $350,000.
Sand expects Eddie to be released
on parole within seven years. Reflect-
ing on the case, the prosecutor says he
felt a deep intellectual satisfaction in
solving the puzzle: “The justice sys-
tem at its best is really about a search
for truth.”Eddie Tipton at his
sentencing hearing in a
Des Moines courthouseThe Luckiest Town Around
Were the 31 oil-refinery employees who shared a $46 million
lottery jackpot this year destined to win? Maybe. After all, they work
in a Canadian town called Come By Chance.
cnn.comReader’s Digest True Crime
116 dec 2018 )jan 2019 | rd.com
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