This isn’t the jackpot you were looking for – move along.
Father and son deli owners from Long Island tried to pull a Jedi mind trick on a customer who came in with a $1 million winning ticket by pretending the prize was only $1,000 police said.
A 34-year-old man came into the Peninsula Deli & Grocery in Hempstead Thursday presenting the valuable scratch-off ticket to Karim Jaghab, the owner’s son.
Jaghab, 26, allegedly tried to convince the man, who didn’t speak English, that the $10 “Unwrap the Cash” ticket was worth a grand, handing him the dough and taking the ticket for himself — even though state lottery rules say he should have given the ticket back to the customer, Nassau County Police said.
But the man wasn’t buying it, and returned the next day to question Jaghab, who decided he needed to up the ante, police said.
“Ok, I will pay you $10,000 as long as you don’t involve the police,” he allegedly told the customer.
Jaghab’s dad, store owner Nabil Jaghab, 57, also got in on the lie, insisting the customer’s ticket was only worth $10,000, police said.
The customer got the truth when he called cops, who arrested the Jaghab’s on second-degree grand larceny charges. The two are scheduled to be arraigned today in a Hempstead court.
