A general store clerk is facing serious charges for allegedly stealing a customer’s winning lottery ticket and attempting to claim the prize himself.
Meet Patel, 23, has been charged with theft exceeding $250,000 by the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office, Tennessee, US.
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This incident took place at a Murfreesboro gas station, where a customer bought two Diamond and Gold scratch-off tickets.
Instead of scratching off the entire tickets, the customer only scratched the bar codes and asked Patel to verify if they were winners.
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Patel told the customer one ticket was worth $40 and gave him the prize. However, he lied about the second ticket, which had a $1 million prize, saying it was not a winner and threw it away.
Surveillance footage reviewed by Tennessee Lottery investigators showed Patel scanning both tickets and then tossing one in the trash.
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The video later captured Patel taking the discarded ticket from the trash and putting it in his pocket.
According to Detective Dennis Ward, Patel was seen celebrating in the store after realizing the ticket had a $1 million prize.
When Patel tried to claim the prize at the Tennessee Lottery headquarters in Nashville, employees became suspicious of his story.
Lt. Detective Steve Craig stated that lottery officials asked him to come back later while they kept the ticket.
Patel is now in custody, awaiting a court hearing later this month.
Authorities managed to track down the rightful owner of the ticket, who was unaware of his win until contacted by the police.
“The great part of this story is the man never knew he was the winner until we reached out to him,” Craig said. “That is life-changing money.”
