Store clerk accused of stealing winning lottery ticket from winner
Rutherford County Sheriff's detectives say that customer bought 2 $20
diamond and gold lottery tickets from the clerk
23 year old meet Patel
As some lottery players do to save time
The customer just scratched off the front bar codes and
then asked Patel to check if they were winners
If you scratch off the front bar code it'll tell
you if it's a winner or not regardless of whether
you scratch off everything showing how much you've won
Lieutenant Detective Steve Craig says both tickets won but Patel
only handed the man back the $40 winner
He told him the other ticket lost
But in actuality it was a million dollar winner
He threw it on top of the trash as that
gentleman left he took the trash outside
And if you follow him on the camera you can
see him grab the ticket put it in his pocket
Not long after that Patel decided to try and claim
the cash prize
He went to the Tennessee lottery commission to claim the
ticket as his own
And through their normal line of questioning they there were
enough red flags for them to say hey you need
to get all your affairs in order and come back
to us and we're gonna hold on to the ticket
What Patel likely didn't know is that lottery officials vet
all big winners
And that includes checking security video of the tickets purchased
video in evidence that Craig says clearly shows the ticket
was stolen
It's pretty obvious good enough for me to put it
in front of 12 jurors and and make sure that
they all come to the same conclusion