In Tennessee, an employee at a gas station has been accused of stealing a winning $1 million scratch-off lottery ticket from a customer and then trying to collect the cash prize.
According to CNN, Meet Patel was arrested after being asked to check two scratch-off tickets and after finding out that both were winners, he kept the one with the $1 million winning. The unidentified winner had no idea he had won the large prize until detectives contacted him to inform him of the employee’s theft. Patel is being held on a charge of theft over $250,000 at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center.
The incident took place at a Shell gas station in Murfreesboro on July 13. The customer scratched off the front of one of the tickets and asked Patel to scan both tickets to see if he had won. One ticket revealed a prize of $40, while the other showed a winning jackpot of $1 million. A surveillance video obtained by investigators of the Tennessee Lottery reveals Patel scanning the tickets but he threw the winning ticket in the garbage.
“If you scratch off the front bar code, it will tell you if it’s a winner or not, regardless of whether you scratch off everything showing how much you won,” Lt. Detective Steve Craig told News Channel 5.
Patel paid out the $40 winning ticket and left the bigger prize ticket on top of the trash. The video shows him retrieving the $1 million winner and placing the ticket in his pocket.
“Mr. Patel is then seen later in the video celebrating in the store after scratching off the front of the ticket and learning it was a $1 million winner,” Det. Dennis Ward said in a news release.
Patel tried to claim the cash prize when he went to the lottery commission. Lottery officials typically check security video where the tickets are purchased and that is when they saw what Patel had done.
“He went to the lottery commission to claim the ticket as his own, but there were red flags and they held onto the ticket,” Lt. Detective Steve Craig said.
Stealing a million-dollar ticket is a Class A felony and a bond was set at $100,000, and Patel is scheduled for a hearing on July 30.
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