Would you hand over a $28,000 down payment on a $15,000 cut of a supposed million-dollar lottery ticket?

If not, you'd be $28,000 richer than a certain misfortunate/gullible 52-year-old woman from El Monte, who police say was befriended by three lottery scammers on April 4. They apparently earned her trust to the point that she was convinced to withdraw cash from two bank accounts, then let her new friends hold onto it while she bought them some water at a nearby market. (Cringe.)

City News Service reports that the woman only speaks Spanish —

and believed the scoundrels when they said “they needed money to help them cash the ticket,” which they claimed was worth $1.7 million. Pretty sure that's not how the lottery works, but… well… too late.

One of the suspects is described as a short Latina woman in her mid-30s, and another as a Latino man of the same age/height.

Their trickery got pretty in-depth by the end: While their victim fetched them water, they told her they were making “a photocopy of the lottery ticket prior to responding to a lottery office in Temple City to collect their winnings,'' El Monte police Detective Tim Siedentopp said.

Haven't we learned anything from Lil' Bow Wow latest blackbuster, the life-lesson-filled “Lottery Ticket”? Or did, uh, no one else watch that. Heh.

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

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