Two people celebrating a birthday were arrested Friday by Insular Investigation detectives and charged with altering scratch tickets in order to win cash prizes, the V.I. Police Department reported.
Mathias Matthew, 65, and Francisca Herman, 50, were taken into custody at the Divi Carina casino.
Detectives said the couple, who were celebrating Matthew’s birthday, presented altered promotional scratch tickets to the casino management attempting to claim prizes valued at $1,000 and $5,000; however, casino staff noticed that the tickets had been altered.
Detectives who inspected the tickets said the tickets appeared to have the winning “money” symbol removed from other tickets and glued onto the tickets being presenting for payment.
The suspects told Divi management that the tickets were in their possession at all times.
Both suspects were charged with forgery and attempted grand larceny. Their bail was set at $35,000 each, which they were unable to post. Both suspects were remanded to the custody of the Golden Grove Adult Correctional Facility pending court action.
