Are you a local business?
The Mystery of the Sterling Place Lotto Litterer
Friday, September 7, 2012 at 3:28PM 
A few times a week, for the past several years, the sidewalks of Sterling Place between Sixth and Flatbush Avenues have become home to thousands of tiny shreds of torn-up lottery tickets. Like clockwork, they invariably appear the morning after numbers are drawn (so nearly every day), and they stay there until either washed away by rain, blown away by wind, or swept away by conscientious neighbors.
Others have noticed, too: last year someone who lives on the block between Seventh and Flatbush posted a couple laminated notices politely imploring the Lotto Litterer to knock it off. That didn't accomplish much.
Why not just throw the tickets away? Why take the time to carefully tear them up into tiny pieces and carefully distribute them up and down the street? Maybe the perpetrator thinks that lottery ticket trees will sprout from the ground. Maybe it's some form or quiet revenge against the lotto gods, or possibly an offering to them. We'll probably never know.
Reader Comments (8)
It isn't just on Sterling Place - I see this all the time all over Berkeley and other streets around. It annoys me to no end.
Glad I'm not the only person around angry about this.
I'll take care of this punk.
It's also on Lincoln Place, every morning.
If it's like clockwork, why not just spend a few hours and stake them out? Take a few pictures and you'll have a number of options to pursue, including shaming them with flyers around the neighborhood.
What about a cart that's been parked and chained to a street post on the corner of Lincoln Pl and 8th Ave? It's been sitting there for over a week and loaded with junks (it looks like it belongs to a homeless person). Is not anyone else bothered?
Im definitely bothered about the homeless in our neighborhood, we need to do more for them.
I have also seen the lotto litterer's handiwork on president st. between 6th and 7th.
Love that this is a post. I walk down Sterling on my way home from the 7th Ave stop and I find it to be the most curious thing. There must be a minimum of 15-20 tickets torn up with how much it's meticulously distributed along the street.
Perhaps it's a form of self-expression? That you'd have to win the lottery to be able to own a beautiful brownstone?
Nah, it's probably just an asshole.