Middle TN Store Clerk Charged After Stealing Winning Lottery Ticket

A man in middle Tennessee got quite the shock when he learned that he had won BIG after buying a lottery ticket that wound up in the trash. Here’s what happened. The man, from the Antioch area of Nashville had stopped at a convenience store in Rutherford County and purchased two scratch-off lottery tickets. The man only scratched off the barcodes on the ticket and had the clerk scan them. The first won $40. The other was thrown in the trash after the clerk stated it was not a winner. That was not the case.
Video footage showed that after the man left the store, the clerk reached into the trash and retrieved the ticket which was worth $1 million. The 23 year old clerk, Meet Patel, tried to claim the million dollar prize, but lottery officials got suspicious. The rightful owner of the ticket was tracked down and got his winnings. Patel was charged with theft over $250,000.
A detective with the Rutherford County Sheriff’s office says this is a lesson for those who buy lottery tickets. Make sure you scratch off the whole ticket and not just the barcode.