"Friend" charged with stealing $50,000 Powerball ticket in NYC
BRONX, N.Y. -- He bought a winning ticket but he picked a lousy friend.
Prosecutors claim that as Powerball fever was gripping the nation on Jan. 13, Victor Castillo purchased a winning $50,000 ticket from La Fuerza Food Corporation, a deli in the Bronx, and that the friend he went back with the next day to check out whether he'd won made off with the winning ticket while he waited in the car.
Castillo allegedly was in the driver's seat of a car with Rubelin Segura, 40, when Segura offered to go inside the deli to check whether the numbers on Castillo's two tickets purchased there the day before had been selected in the previous night's much-anticipated drawing. When he returned, Segura allegedly handed Castillo one ticket, saying he'd won $4, and ran off without returning the other.
When Castillo called Segura, someone he'd known for eight years, to ask about the missing ticket, he was told: "You didn't win. I ripped it," according to the complaint filed yesterday in Bronx criminal court.
Segura then allegedly returned moments later and handed Castillo several pieces of a ripped New York Lottery ticket before taking off again.
Castillo brought the handful of ripped up ticket pieces in to the clerk, along with his original play slip. The clerk, Jochy Estevez told him that while his play slip numbers showed he'd won $50,000, the ripped up ticket was not the winner, according to the complaint.
Castillo kept reaching out to Segura about the ticket. He spoke with him about it and even got a voicemail from Segura trying to negotiate a deal, court documents say.
"I'm going to give you half or a little more. Stop saying I'm a thief. When I go I will call you. They will give me a check. It will take 3-4 days... " he told Castillo. "If you don't want to be my friend, you don't have to be my friend."
Segura allegedly spoke to another person on the phone who asked "how can you do that to your friend?"
He allegedly replied: "I'm going to give him half plus five thousand more. If I get $50,000 I will give him $30,000. If I get $45,000 I will give him $25,000."
At some point, Segura allegedly text-messaged Castillo a photograph of the claim form submitted to the Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway with Castillo's ticket number and Segura's contact information. The clerk is backing up Castillo's claim that the defendant brought in two winning tickets, one for $4 and another for $50,000, on the day in question.
Segura has been charged with multiple counts of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, petit larceny, and for making false statements, offering a false instrument for filing and falsifying business records.
He has pleaded not guilty, according to the Bronx DA.