Retailer relative orchestrated underhanded claim
By Kate Northrop
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida man was arrested after attempting to cash in a stolen Florida Lottery Fantasy 5 ticket worth more than $115,000.
A shady attempt to claim a $115,000 Fantasy 5 lottery prize was tied back to a reported theft at a retailer in Palm Beach County, which prevented a fraudulent payout and had officials on high alert.
Authorities arrested Areeb Jawed, 26, when his story of how he actually obtained a $115,000 winning Fantasy 5 ticket came to light.
On Oct. 20, 2025, Jawed presented the winning ticket, in total worth $115,733.61, to Lottery officials at the district office in West Palm Beach. It was verified as a valid winning ticket, and so Jawed filled out a claim form, submitted his driver's license for identification, and initiated a claim for the prize.
However, the submission of Jawed's claim triggered an electronic alarm bell in the Lottery's telecommunications system since the ticket had been reported stolen.
On Oct. 2, 2025, the ticket was identified as stolen from the rightful owner, Michael Williams, 61, with the theft reported as having occurred at retailer Marathon Gas on Southwest 81st Avenue in North Lauderdale.
Despite this, Jawed signed the claim form, which essentially attested that the ticket was rightfully his.
Authorities contacted him by phone on Nov. 24, 2025 and heard from him that he had received the ticket from his uncle, Aftab Mohammed Alam, 55, on or around Oct. 22, 2025. Alam had instructed his nephew to take the ticket and cash it in without revealing him as the person in possession of the ticket, an arrest affidavit states.
Jawed identified his uncle's place of business, which was the same location where the ticket was reported stolen from Williams.
Investigators then visited Jawed at his home in Sunrise on Jan. 5, 2026, where he explained the theft from start to finish and admitted to submitting a false claim.
He was arrested and charged with one count of defrauding to obtain property value of more than $50,000, one count of grand theft of over $100,000 in the first degree, and one count of filing a false claim for payment, all of which are felonies. The maximum penalty the first two charges carry is up to 30 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, while filing a false claim may beget up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Jawed was booked into Palm Beach County Jail on Jan. 8, 2026 and was released the following day. Court records indicate that his next hearing is scheduled for Feb. 12, 2026.
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That is the look of someone who knows they're screwed.
Thinking of his life ahead.
Very sombre, indeed.
Will the uncle be charged as well for telling his nephew to claim the ticket?
Time will tell
well the ticket was a "Fantasy" variety, so there is that.
* Worse still is if you a naturalized citizen or a green card holder, you could be stripped of both & sent back to your home country. Playtime is over.
How was the ticket stolen?
His uncle owns the gas station where the ticket was purchased. Probably the buyer of the winner asked the uncle( owner) to verify the ticket, then he probably told him its a losing ticket, Probably didn't return said ticket then the purchaser reported it stolen . What is puzzling is why this wasn't resolved on October 2 nd the day of the reported theft
I think Tony Numbers post contains the most likely explanation of how the ticket was stolen.
Fanatsy5 is a daily online game with two drawings per day so the ticket purchase and the drawing had to have taken place prior to October 2nd. What I can't figure out is if the guy that originally bought the ticket took the gas station owners word for it that it was a loser, how did he learn on October 2nd the gas station owner had lied to him and that it was really a $115 jackpot winner? Especially if it was a Quick Pick! I can understand if he played the same numbers everyday, but a QP?? (And if there were multiple lines of QP's on the ticket, I can't see how he'd have known he was ripped off.)
Just like Tony Numbers, I'm thinking - "What took so long?" G5
Yep, his uncle held on to the ticket for a few weeks but couldn't claim the ticket as his own since being a lottery retailer and claiming the prize would deinitely set off alarm bells.
So he gave the ticket for his nephew to claim hoping it wouldn't get noticed.
Jawed cracked big time under investigation.
The only question now is what charges will his uncle (the owner) face beside losing your lottery license.
This story might be more complicated than it already appears to be.
Jawed presented the ticket to The Florida Lottery and initiated a claim on October 20.
Authorities contacted Jawed by phone on Nov. 24, 2025, and visited his home on january 5th. He was booked in The Palm Beach County jail on January 8th.
That says to me that Jawed could have been paid by The Florida Lottery on October 20th, but if they did that, then they would have withheld Federal Income Taxes from the payout. So The IRS might have received their cut on October 20th.
The story doesn't say whether or not Mr. Williams (the original purchaser of the ticket) got the ticket back after The PB County Sheriffs Office booked Jawed. If Williams did get it back, and presented it to The Florida Lottery for payment, did they withhold Federal Income taxes from it a second time??? Williams has to pay Federal Taxes on his win.
Maybe The PBCSO is keeping the ticket as evidence to be used in court to prosecute Jawed. Maybe The Florida Lottery got the withholdings back from The IRS. Maybe because The Florida Lottery's "electronic alarm bell" triggered the Florida Lottery, they did not pay Jawed on October 20th. Maybe The IRS will go after Jawed for the withholdings? Lotta 'maybe's' here. Makes me wonder what's gonna happen.
Where is Artist77 when a guy really needs her? She'll know the drill. G5
Here's what I shoulda written right after I read this story -
Hells Bells! And here I always thought blood was thicker then water! That sure aint right, is it!
And just to add insult to injury, from lookin' at Jaweds mugshot, that boy sure looks to me like a Green Bay Packerhead, don't he??
G5
That guy is 26? That is a hard 26. I would have guessed 46.
The winning drawing was Oct 1 evening.
Wed, Oct 1, 2025
Evening 3 12 17 20 23
5-of-55
4-of-54
3-of-53
2-of-52
I'm thinking Williams knew he won and went to the store to verify it and the jackpot amount, but the uncle told him he won a smaller prize and gave Williams the money out of the cash register then kept the ticket and wouldn't return it. So then Williams reported him for stealing the ticket stolen and the rest is history.
Here's a cut and paste from the Florida Lottery's Jackpot Winners and Retailers Report -
10/1/2025 EVENING DRAWING
WINNERS NAME - MICHAEL GEORGE WILLIAMS
RETAILER - LIQUOR 1 NORTH LAUDERDALE, FL 33068 7110 N UNIVERSITY DRIVE SUITE D, TAMARAC
CASH OPTION - $115,732.61
QUICK PICK? NO
Your guess is pretty good... But a human being somewhere had to have tipped Williams off that he was ripped off by the gas station owner. If he had first used the Florida Lottery's scanner available to lottery ticket customers he would have seen/known the ticket was a big winner. If he subsequently handed it to the owner to "verify" it, then he's an outright fool.
If he didn't use the scanner and handed it to the gas station owner, then two things happened. 1.) The owner was now in a position to rip Williams off, and 2.) Williams no longer has the ticket in his possession so he cant scan it and therefore it could not be a scanner that tipped Williams off. According to the Winners Report he didn't buy the ticket at the gas station.
Notice the ticket was NOT a Quick Pick. So maybe Williams played the five winning numbers very regularly and knew the five winning numbers by heart and he himself realized he had been ripped off. Getting closer to what might have actually happened, but not sure we'll get any closer than we currently are. G5
There is another possibility. That Williams picked his own numbers and had them written down to fill out his playslips like a lot of us do with our workouts. So he knew he had a jackpot win. Possibly he had some of the same numbers on multiple lines on the ticket and hit a smaller prize and wanted to cash that win at the gas station. Then he wanted the ticket back so he could claim his jackpot and never thought the clerk (uncle) would refuse to return it.
The only way we'll know for sure is to talk to Williams I guess.
Good guess...
I've been thinking Williams "tipped himself off" too. Some how, some way he figured out that he screwed up and went back to the gas station asking for the ticket back.
"No can do, my friend. I tore it up and threw it out!!" And then the dog ate the garbage. Maybe tomorrow after I walk the dog, you can come back and we'll see if we can do anything."
That's how bad this story SMELLS! G5