读者文摘:美国历史上最大的彩票骗局(4)

Sand contacted Richard Rennison, a special agent at the FBI office in Texas City, Texas.

桑德联系了理查德·雷尼森，他是美国联邦调查局(FBI)驻德克萨斯州得克萨斯城办公室的一名特工。

Rennison said he remembered the case well: In 2006, a man named Tom Bargas had contacted local law enforcement with a suspicious story.

雷尼森说，他对这个案子记得很清楚：2006年，一个名叫汤姆·巴尔加斯的男子向当地执法部门提供了一个可疑的故事。

Bargas owned 44 fireworks stands. Twice a year—after the Fourth of July and New Year's—he handled enormous amounts of cash.

巴加斯拥有44个烟花摊位。每年的7月4日和新年之后，他都会处理巨额的现金。

A man he knew, a local justice of the peace, called Bargas around New Year's and said, "I got half a million in cash that I want to swap¹ with your money."

一个他认识的人，当地的治安法官，在新年前后打电话给巴尔加斯说，“我有50万现金，我想你换钱。”

What's a justice of the peace who makes around $35,000 a year doing with that much cash? Bargas thought.

巴尔加斯心里想，年薪大约3万5千美元的治安法官怎么会有这么多现金呢？

Suspicious, he called the police, who called the FBI.

他感觉这很可疑，于是他联系了警方，警察又联系了美国联邦调查局(FBI)。

Soon, agents listened in as Bargas met with the justice of the peace, Tommy Tipton.

不久，当巴尔加斯会见治安法官汤米·蒂普顿时，特工们进行了监听。

Tommy pulled out a briefcase² filled with $450,000 in cash, still in Federal Reserve wrappers, and swapped³ $100,000 of it for Bargas's worn, circulated bills.

汤米拿出一个公文包，里面装满了45万美元的现金，还装在美联储的包装纸里。他把其中的10万美元换成了巴尔加斯的破旧的流通着的钞票。

The FBI then went to work investigating the serial⁴ numbers on the new bills.

联邦调查局随后着手调查这些新钞票的序列号。

A few months later, Rennison went to see Tommy. He said that he had hit the lottery⁵ but was on the outs with his wife and trying to keep the winnings from her.

几个月后，雷尼森去见汤米。他说他中了彩票，但他和妻子关系不好，想瞒着她。

A friend had claimed the $568,990 prize in exchange for 10 percent of the money.

一位朋友认领了56.8990万美元的奖金，拿到了奖金的10%。

At the time, it all seemed to add up, and the Tommy Tipton case was closed.

到这个时候，一切似乎都说得通了。汤米·蒂普顿的案子算是了结了。

Now Sand suspected that there were even more illicitly⁶ claimed tickets out there.

现在桑德怀疑还有更多的非法彩票认领。

He knew from experience that whitecollar criminals aren't usually caught on their first attempt.

他从经验中得知，白领阶层的罪犯通常不会在第一次尝试时就被抓住。

In fact, a $783,257.72 jackpot from a Wisconsin Lottery drawing on December 29, 2007, had been claimed by a Texas man named Robert Rhodes—Eddie Tipton's best friend.

实际上，2007年12月29日，一位名叫罗伯特·罗兹的德州男子从威斯康辛州的一次彩票抽奖中赢得了78.325772万美元的头奖。他是汤米·蒂普顿最好的朋友。

On November 23, 2011, Kyle Conn from Hemphill, Texas, won $644,478 in the Oklahoma Lottery.

2011年11月23日，来自德克萨斯州亨菲尔的凯尔·康恩在俄克拉荷马州的彩票中赢得了64.4478万美元。

Sand saw that Tommy Tipton had three Facebook friends named Conn.

桑德发现汤米·蒂普顿在Facebook上有三个叫康恩的朋友。

He got a list of possible phone numbers and cross-referenced them with Tommy's cell phone records. Another hit.

他得到了一个可能的电话号码列表，并与汤米的手机记录进行了交叉比对。又一个线索。

Two winning Kansas Lottery tickets with $15,402 payouts were purchased on December 23, 2010—the day Eddie bought the Iowa ticket.

2010年12月23日，有人购买了两张堪萨斯州彩票，中了15402美元奖金。和艾迪购买爱荷华州彩票是同一天。

Cell phone records indicated he was driving through Kansas on the way to Texas for the holidays.

手机记录显示，当时他开车穿过堪萨斯去德克萨斯度假。

One of the winning tickets was claimed by a Texan named Christopher McCoulskey; the other, by an Iowan named Amy Warrick. Each was a friend of Eddie's.

其中一张中奖彩票是德克萨斯人克里斯托弗·麦考斯基认领的；另一张是爱荷华州的艾米·沃里克认领的。两个人都是艾迪的朋友。

One morning, Sand and an investigator⁷ knocked on Warrick's door. She told them Eddie had said he wasn't able to claim a winning lottery ticket because of his job.

一天早上，桑德和一个侦查员敲了沃里克的房门，她告诉他们，艾迪说，因为他的工作关系，他不能领取中奖彩票。

If she could claim it, he'd said, she could keep a portion as a gift for her recent engagement.

如果她能去认领，她就可以留一部分作为自己最近订婚的礼物。

1 swap   

n.交换；vt.交换，用...作交易

参考例句：

• I will swap you my bicycle for your radio.我想拿我的自行车换你的收音机。
• This comic was a swap that I got from Nick.这本漫画书是我从尼克那里换来的。

2 briefcase   

n.手提箱，公事皮包

参考例句：

• He packed a briefcase with what might be required.他把所有可能需要的东西都装进公文包。
• He requested the old man to look after the briefcase.他请求那位老人照看这个公事包。

3 swapped   

交换（工作）( swap的过去式和过去分词 )； 用…替换，把…换成，掉换（过来）

参考例句：

• I liked her coat and she liked mine, so we swapped. 我喜欢她的外套，她喜欢我的外套，于是我们就交换了。
• At half-time the manager swapped some of the players around. 经理在半场时把几名队员换下了场。

4 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

5 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

6 illicitly   

违法地，不正地

参考例句：

• That substance illicitly to fool quality-inspection testers because it can mimic the properties of protein. 乳制品之所以添加三聚氰胺是因为它可以虚增蛋白质含量、在质量测试中蒙混过关。
• Western governments international bodies should police Gaza's borders and crossing-points to stop weapons illicitly coming in. 西方政府和国际组织应该巡查加沙边界和交叉区域，阻止武器的非法流入。

7 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。