Blind vendor’s future on line after theft

Alicia Chang

Friday, Feb. 8, 2002 | 9:47 a.m.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- For the past decade, Jim Welch has been a fixture for state workers who stroll to his newsstand on breaks and buy a candy bar, a pack of cigarettes or, more likely, a lottery ticket.

Now, the legally blind owner of Jim's Place, in a state office building near the Capitol, is walking a financial tightrope after the theft of thousands of dollars worth of lottery tickets.

Welch can't sell lottery tickets -- which make up half of his revenue -- until he pays the New York State Lottery Division the $13,500 his business owes. There are 116 newsstands and kiosks around the state operated by people who are legally blind.

On a recent afternoon, Welch, a lanky 37-year-old, rang up customers as usual but occasionally stopped to apologize to those asking to play the lottery. His machine, he told them, has been inactivated until further notice.

"No sir, lottery is shut down. Sorry," Welch told customers somberly. "It's temporary, I hope."

In 2001, Welch said total sales at his booth from instant scratch-off games and online betting totaled $640,000, an amount that earned him $38,400 in commission -- six cents for every dollar.

Welch's employee, Richard Kafer, 30, of Rensselaer, has been charged with stealing 27 books of lottery tickets valued at $500 each since last October. Kafer mostly took $10 scratch-off tickets, the most expensive variety, according to State Police Investigator Bruce MacWatters. Kafer is charged with felony third-degree grand larceny and remains in jail.

A second employee, Keith Cable, 31, of Clifton Park, was charged Monday with petit larceny, a misdemeanor, in connection with the theft.

"I never want to trust anyone again except for my wife," Welch said. "I thought I had saw it all."

He admitted he wouldn't need to hire anyone if not for his disability. When he was 8, the Scotia native lost most of his vision to a condition his doctors blamed on heredity. Welch likened his blindness to tunnel vision in reverse: He has a blind spot in the middle of his field of vision and can only see things on the periphery.

"Just the sheer volume of lottery tickets that come in here, you need bodies to help you," he said.

Welch had been on probation with the lottery department since last year after a weekly check showed the amount of money in his account didn't match the number of tickets he sold. Welch said the discrepancy was probably caused by a delay in making a deposit and does not believe it had anything to do with the theft.

Following the theft, lottery officials last week followed standard procedure and turned off his terminal pending an investigation, according to lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman.

Hapeman declined comment on the criminal investigation but stressed that the lottery works with its 15,000 retailers statewide on a daily basis to make sure they -- and the lottery -- are successful.

"We have been working with him on ways to improve his business planning and on ways to improve his selling techniques," Hapeman said. "Our primary goal is to make sure his business is solid."

Welch first became suspicious after the lottery billed him for more tickets than he sold. He then noticed that five lottery books -- each containing 50, $10 tickets -- were activated the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the slowest sales day of the year for him because state workers are off that day. Each book contains a serial number and is time stamped when activated, making it easier to track the tickets.

"We know there's hardly anyone that wants tickets on that day. They're all home digesting Thanksgiving dinner. That's when we knew we had a problem," Welch said.

While the investigation continues, Welch said he has had to take out a personal loan, cash in life insurance and may have to dip into his two children's trust fund to pay back the lottery division.

Welch will move his operation into the new state comptroller's building Thursday but still can't sell lottery tickets until the money is repaid.

"This is my bread-and-butter. To not sell lottery tickets is to make me languish," Welch said.