Woman planned to use $2,600 lotto win on funeral cost. USPS worker stole it instead, offic

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (South Florida Sun Sentinel) — A U.S. Postal Service worker is accused of taking a woman’s winning lottery ticket worth $2,600 out of the mail and redeeming it for herself at a South Florida lottery office, Florida Lottery officials say.

Lakaysha Lockhart, 28, of Hollywood, was arrested July 23 after an investigation by Special agents with Florida Lottery and the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, court records show.

She faces charges of grand theft, dealing in stolen property, filing a false claim for payment, unlawful use of a two-way communication device and mail theft, Florida Lottery officials said in a news release Friday.

A woman in Tampa bought a Pick 4 lottery ticket in June and scanned the ticket the next day, finding she had won $2,600, according to a probable cause affidavit. She went to a USPS office and mailed it to a relative in Fort Lauderdale “to financially assist with funeral cost” of a person whose identity is redacted in the affidavit, the court document shows.

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The woman reported “a suspicious condition incident” to lottery officials after finding that the ticket had not been delivered by USPS to the expected address, the affidavit said.

A Florida Lottery inspector found that the ticket was redeemed on June 19 at the Florida Lottery Miami District Office by Lockhart, who was a USPS letter carrier, the news release said.

She was employed as a Level 2 City Carrier at the post office at 1900 W. Oakland Park Blvd. in Oakland Park, the affidavit said.

Lockhart joined USPS in April 2025 and remains employed there “but currently is off duty,” USPS spokesperson for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, Debbie Fetterly, said in an email.

Lockhart after her arrest allegedly admitted to stealing and redeeming the ticket, according to the news release.

She has since been released after posting bail, court records show. She has not yet entered a plea to the charges. Attorney information was not available Friday.

She will be prosecuted in both Broward and Miami-Dade County, Chelsea Owens, Florida Lottery press secretary, said in an email.