Rennison said he remembered the case well: In 2006, a man named Tom Bargas had contacted local law enforcement with a suspicious story.
Bargas owned 44 fireworks stands. Twice a year—after the Fourth of July and New Year's—he handled enormous amounts of cash.
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 swap with your money."
一個他認識的人,當地的治安法官,在新年前后打電話給巴爾加斯說,“我有50萬現金,我想你換錢?!?/div>
What's a justice of the peace who makes around $35,000 a year doing with that much cash? Bargas thought.
巴爾加斯心里想,年薪大約3萬5千美元的治安法官怎么會有這么多現金呢?
Suspicious, he called the police, who called the FBI.
他感覺這很可疑,于是他聯系了警方,警察又聯系了美國聯邦調查局(FBI)。
Soon, agents listened in as Bargas met with the justice of the peace, Tommy Tipton.
不久,當巴爾加斯會見治安法官湯米·蒂普頓時,特工們進行了監聽。
Tommy pulled out a briefcase filled with $450,000 in cash, still in Federal Reserve wrappers, and swapped $100,000 of it for Bargas's worn, circulated bills.
湯米拿出一個公文包,里面裝滿了45萬美元的現金,還裝在美聯儲的包裝紙里。他把其中的10萬美元換成了巴爾加斯的破舊的流通著的鈔票。
The FBI then went to work investigating the serial numbers on the new bills.
聯邦調查局隨后著手調查這些新鈔票的序列號。
A few months later, Rennison went to see Tommy. He said that he had hit the lottery but was on the outs with his wife and trying to keep the winnings from her.
幾個月后,雷尼森去見湯米。他說他中了彩票,但他和妻子關系不好,想瞞著她。

A friend had claimed the $568,990 prize in exchange for 10 percent of the money.
一位朋友認領了56.8990萬美元的獎金,拿到了獎金的10%。
At the time, it all seemed to add up, and the Tommy Tipton case was closed.
到這個時候,一切似乎都說得通了。湯米·蒂普頓的案子算是了結了。
Now Sand suspected that there were even more illicitly claimed tickets out there.
現在桑德懷疑還有更多的非法彩票認領。
He knew from experience that whitecollar criminals aren't usually caught on their first attempt.
他從經驗中得知,白領階層的罪犯通常不會在第一次嘗試時就被抓住。
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.
實際上,2007年12月29日,一位名叫羅伯特·羅茲的德州男子從威斯康辛州的一次彩票抽獎中贏得了78.325772萬美元的頭獎。他是湯米·蒂普頓最好的朋友。
On November 23, 2011, Kyle Conn from Hemphill, Texas, won $644,478 in the Oklahoma Lottery.
2011年11月23日,來自德克薩斯州亨菲爾的凱爾·康恩在俄克拉荷馬州的彩票中贏得了64.4478萬美元。
Sand saw that Tommy Tipton had three Facebook friends named Conn.
桑德發現湯米·蒂普頓在Facebook上有三個叫康恩的朋友。
He got a list of possible phone numbers and cross-referenced them with Tommy's cell phone records. Another hit.
他得到了一個可能的電話號碼列表,并與湯米的手機記錄進行了交叉比對。又一個線索。
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,有人購買了兩張堪薩斯州彩票,中了15402美元獎金。和艾迪購買愛荷華州彩票是同一天。
Cell phone records indicated he was driving through Kansas on the way to Texas for the holidays.
手機記錄顯示,當時他開車穿過堪薩斯去德克薩斯度假。
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.
其中一張中獎彩票是德克薩斯人克里斯托弗·麥考斯基認領的;另一張是愛荷華州的艾米·沃里克認領的。兩個人都是艾迪的朋友。
One morning, Sand and an investigator 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,桑德和一個偵查員敲了沃里克的房門,她告訴他們,艾迪說,因為他的工作關系,他不能領取中獎彩票。
If she could claim it, he'd said, she could keep a portion as a gift for her recent engagement.
如果她能去認領,她就可以留一部分作為自己最近訂婚的禮物。