Technically it's their trash while on their property. If you're caught at 4am before the store opens in the trash by the police, there
might be a problem. Taking trash shouldn't be a problem for anyone but it's been a problem in the past...story here about woman
finding a big winning ticket and claiming it then finding someone else connected to the store (customer/worker) was taking claim to it
and took the case to court.
You'd think that if it's in the dumpster there would be no problem entering it into the second chance drawing, I doubt anyone would
come forward and try to put a claim on a prize that you entered a code for from a losing, discarded ticket. How would they prove it
anyway? It's not like you sign losing tickets...so in a sea of 60, how do you find the one you did at 2pm in the afternoon on a
Monday? Check the waste cans beside the ticket machines or in the store while the store is open, that will at least prevent you
from getting questioned about what you're doing at 4am in the trash.
Your 1st question...take it to a different store and have a clerk scan it. I don't know how CA works but in PA we have a scratch
to scan box and if it's intact, that ticket hasn't been scanned or redeemed. I've found some winners like that...I especially like
to scan the big price tickets, $20 and $30 or difficult games meant to confuse that still have the box covered by latex. I found
a $30 $3 ticket that way once and a $75 $30 ticket too.
So personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with taking tickets from the trash but would be careful about the 4am thing.
Good luck!