A store clerk stole a $1 million lottery ticket, authorities say

A Tennessee man only learned he was the winner of a $1 million jackpot when detectives called to tell him his winning ticket had been stolen, according to authorities.

The lottery winner, who did not want to be publicly identified, bought two winning tickets at a Shell gas station in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release on Monday. One winning ticket had a prize of $40 and the other was the $1 million ticket.

A clerk at the gas station stole the ticket and tried to collect the prize, authorities said.

Store video obtained by investigators of the Tennessee Lottery shows Meet Patel scanning the tickets, according to authorities. To save time, the customer had only scratched off the front bar code, and then asked Patel to check if the tickets were winners, authorities told CNN affiliate WTVF.

“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. Det. Steve Craig told WTVF.

Patel then placed the $1 million ticket in the trash, authorities said. Later, the video allegedly shows him taking out the trash, after which he removes the winning ticket and puts it 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 the news release.

For any prize of $200,000 or more, players must claim their winnings at the Tennessee Lottery’s Nashville headquarters. Patel, 23, tried to claim his prize from the Tennessee Lottery, but employees there were suspicious, according to the news release.

“He went to the Tennessee Lottery Commission to claim the ticket as his own and through their normal line of questioning there were enough red flags for them to say, ‘Hey, you need to get all of your affairs in order and come back to us and we’re gonna hold on to the ticket,’” Craig told WTVF.

Patel is currently being held on a charge of theft over $250,000 at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center, the sheriff’s office told CNN. His bond is set at $100,000 and a hearing is scheduled for July 30.

“It’s pretty obvious. It’s good enough for me to put in front of 12 jurors and make sure that they all come to the same conclusion,” Craig said.

The sheriff’s office reviewed the video to help identify the man who bought the ticket. Less than a day later, Ward told the man, who is a father, he was a winner and convinced him to claim his winnings.

“The feel-good side of this story is the (father) never knew he was the winner until we made contact with him,” Craig said. “That is absolutely life-changing money.”

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