Suspect accused of cashing stolen lottery tickets

TYLER — A man attempted to escape from police after he allegedly cashed more than $1,000 in stolen lottery tickets in Tyler on Friday, according to our news partner KETK.

The Tyler Police Department responded to the Texas Lottery Office at 4801 Troup Highway, where two men were seen inside trying to cash stolen lottery tickets. A Smith County arrest affidavit reports that officers then attempted to detain the suspect, Ke’eric Armon Franklin, while he was walking out of the lottery office, but Franklin ran from the scene.

“In full Tyler Police uniform, I told Franklin to ‘halt’ and he asked, ‘Why?’ then sprinted out of his shoes northbound and out of sight,” the officer said. “Franklin ran barefoot to the intersection of Tanglewood and Old Omen, where police told him to stop, but he replied, ‘No, I’m not going to.’”

After a long pursuit, Franklin was put into handcuffs, where he forcefully pulled away as he fought to keep the officer from taking him into custody. “Once Franklin was in custody, I asked him his name to identify him, and he told me that his name was ‘Tyrone McCullough’ instead of his real name,” the document said. “This was at a time when Franklin was already in custody for multiple on-site charges and obliged to answer truthfully.”

Upon further investigation, police determined that Franklin had cashed $1,502 in stolen lottery tickets, working in conjunction with another man who has not been charged in the scheme. Arrest records revealed that the tickets had been stolen in a burglary at a convenience store the night before.

He was booked into the Smith County Jail, where he was charged with claiming a lottery prize fraud, evading arrest with a previous conviction, resisting arrest, and failure to identify: give false information.