A United States Postal Service (USPS) employee in South Florida was arrested after being accused of stealing a winning state lottery ticket that was in the mail and cashing it herself, according to local news.
Lekaysha Lockhart, 28 years old and a resident of Hollywood in Broward County, was arrested following a joint investigation by the Florida Lottery Security Division and the USPS Office of Inspector General.
The charges against him include grand theft, trafficking in stolen property, petty theft, two counts of illegal use of a communication device to facilitate a felony, filing a false claim, and obtaining mail by fraud or deception.
Since the alleged crimes occurred in more than one judicial circuit, the cases will be processed separately.
How did the robbery happen?
Everything began on June 15, when a player discovered at a Publix in Tampa that her Pick 4 ticket was a winner for $2,600.
Since retailers in Florida cannot pay out prizes exceeding $600, on that same day the woman mailed the ticket to a relative in South Florida so it could be redeemed at a Lottery office.
However, the bill never arrived at its destination.
An inspector from the Florida Lottery traced the document and determined that it had been cashed on June 19 at the Miami Lakes District Office.
The person who presented the bill was identified as Lockhart, an active USPS carrier.
After her arrest, the accused admitted to the investigators that she had taken the letter from the mail she was handling on her route and had cashed it herself.
Lockhart is still on the USPS payroll
According to CBS News, Lockhart was hired by the USPS in 2025, continues to be listed as an employee of the agency, but is currently off duty.
The case was coordinated among the Florida Lottery, the USPS Office of Inspector General, and the Broward County Sheriff's Office.
The Director of Security for the Florida Lottery, Loren Lowers, confirmed the value of the ticket in question. “This ticket was worth $2,600”, he stated.
Mail theft, a recurring problem in South Florida
Mail theft is a federal crime in the United States, and USPS employees are subject to investigations by the Office of Inspector General, which has jurisdiction over crimes committed by postal personnel.
South Florida has reported similar cases in recent years.
In April 2026, a couple of Cubans was arrested accused of stealing mail from homes; while in January 2024, another couple from Miami was detained for stealing from mailboxes.
The Lockhart case is particularly striking because the accused was an active employee who stole directly from the mail under her custody.
The response from the Florida Lottery
The Secretary of the Florida Lottery, Reginald D. Dixon, issued a statement in which he commended the work of the agencies involved in solving the case.
“Our players deserve the confidence that every lottery prize is protected by stringent security measures and diligent oversight”, Dixon stated.
"I congratulate our Security Division for their outstanding investigative work and thank our partners from the Office of the Inspector General of the Postal Service and the Broward County Sheriff's Office for their collaboration in protecting the integrity of the Florida Lottery games," he added.
The Florida Lottery allows prizes of up to $250,000 to be claimed by mail, a method that, while convenient, shifts the risk of delivery onto the player, as the agency itself warns in its claims guidelines.
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