Pennsylvania Lottery: Woman stole lottery tickets to get better working hours
A convenience store worker allegedly stole at least $800 worth of Pennsylvania Lottery tickets and gave the winning ones to her boss in exchange for better working hours, police said.
Marcella Fletcher, 53, of Garfield Street, Nanticoke, faces charges of theft, tampering with records, and making false reports to law enforcement, police said.
According to police, Fahim Mirza, owner of the Uni-Mart on Market Street, told police on Jan. 15 that one of his former employees had been stealing from him.
Videotape from Dec. 24, 2006, showed Fletcher scratching off hundreds of dollars worth of lottery tickets, police said. Store manager Peggy Tweedly said Fletcher had scratched the tickets and thrown the losing ones in the trash. Tweedly reviewed the surveillance tape and reported it to Mirza, who fired Fletcher, police said.
Under police questioning, Fletcher said she took lottery tickets from Thanksgiving through Dec. 14, 2006, scratched them off, and gave the winning ones to Tweedly. Fletcher altered lottery sale records to conceal the thefts, police said.
Fletcher said Tweedly promised to adjust her working hours to better suit her if she did Tweedly a favor, namely give her $50 to $100 worth of lottery tickets at least twice a week, police said. Fletcher told police she scratched off at least $800 worth of lottery tickets and gave about $400 worth of winning tickets to Tweedly.
Tweedly denied participating in the theft, and said she would take a lie detector test, police said.
Tweedly asked for Fletcher to be charged with making false reports to law enforcement for telling police she was also involved.