Had a below minimum wage job with selling lottery numbers as a task. One of the customers played the same lotto numbers every time. One day he put his for on the counter, way out of my way, expecting me to walk over to get it. I didn’t.
He brought it over to me – pissed that I didn’t jump and fetch for him. I asked him if he was playing these same numbers for a while. He was.
So I ran his ticket through twice. The lottery jackpot was $24 million (quite a few years ago.) I gave him his ticket and put another dollar in the register for the copy I bought. I told him “Now I’m your lotto buddy. Every week I am going to play ‘your numbers.’ When you win tonight, I will be on the stage with you when get your oversized check. Instead of $24,000,000 you’ll get $12,000,000.”
I filled out a second form with his numbers on it. He was outraged and said he would tell my boss. I ran the ticket through again, put another dollar in the till and gave the 3rd ticket to my cow orker friend. “Now, you’ll get $8,000,000. Want to go for $6,000,000?”
He went to my boss to tattle. The boss said there was nothing he could do to stop me. The old man was red in the face and almost crying.
He did not go anywhere else to buy the ticket. It was a bowling alley. I was working the day shift, when he team played – all the time. Twice a week he would give me his ticket. After his purchase I’d pull my copy of the form and run it through the machine, pay my dollar, and give him a wink and a grin.
A few months later I got fired for a different reason. I quit playing his numbers. Nobody from the town ever won the Mega Millions. But while I was there, the old man had me in his head every time he thought of winning.