A man walks into a store with $105 and leaves with $199 and four $1 lottery tickets. If it sounds like the opening line of a joke, it's not. It's a flimflam scam.
Richard Manna, a 47-year-old Merrimack man, has been charged with theft by deception after the police said he did just that at the Big Apple store on Main Street in Tilton on Feb. 7.
Confused? So was the clerk. Here's how the police said Manna nearly doubled his money in minutes.
First, he bought two scratch tickets and paid with a $5 bill. The clerk, Jason Jacobs, gave him $3 in change. Then the man bought two more tickets, and paid with a $100 bill. Jacobs gave him the tickets, and $98 cash. Then he said he had $2 after all, and, talking with the clerk the whole time, paid again for the second batch of tickets, asking for his $100 back. The clerk returned it, and the scam artist hit the jackpot.
Basically, said Tilton Detective Mathew Dawson, the man turned $100 profit. "Not a bad investment."
Dawson's colleague, Detective Sgt. Mike Farrington, tracked down Manna after seeing media reports of similar scams elsewhere in the state. On the same day Manna is accused of stealing from the Tilton store, the police say he scammed both the Storrs Street and Fort Eddy Road Market Basket stores in Concord.
When Farrington called the Concord Police Department, Detective Todd Flanagan told him that he had already spoken with a detective in Hollis about a similar scam there involving the suspect.
Farrington said Jacobs identified Manna from a photo lineup in seconds.
The Tilton Police Department has completed a warrant for Manna's arrest on charges of theft by deception, which carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years. The Concord Police Department also has an arrest warrant for Manna, as do departments in Salem, Merrimack, Hudson and elsewhere.
CONCORD MONITOR
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