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Apr 25, 2007, 5:03 am (8 comments)
If you bought a lottery ticket at Valley Supreme Liquors in Pine Bush, New York, and lost, you might want to blame the clerk who sold it to you.
He might have stolen a jackpot meant for you.
While Michael M. Ciarcia worked at the liquor store, he stole more than $40,000 worth of lottery tickets — "a few" of which were winners, according to state police in Middletown.
Ciarcia, who worked at the store for six months, was arrested last week and charged with second-degree burglary and third-degree larceny, both felonies. Although the State Lottery Commission is still tallying the amount of Ciarcia's winning tickets, his take was probably not enough to pay for the $50,000 bail it would take to spring him from Orange County Jail.
So what happened to the money authorities said he won?
"Any repayment will have to go through the courts," said Senior Investigator Brian Meier of the state police.
This isn't Ciarcia's first brush with the the law. In 2005, he was charged with criminal mischief, a felony, and accused of trashing more than $5,000 worth of new stock at the Thruway Market in Walden because he was angry that he'd been suspended from the store without pay, he told police.
And during his arrest last week, Ciarcia told them he robbed a local home and stole $1,900 in cash.
Times Herald-Record
im glad they caught him becasue im sure some clerks have gotten away with this behaviour in the past
God bless those fools who say they trust the clerk and just hand over a bunch of lottery tickets to be checked (there have been a few jackpot and second tier winners who said that), but this just goes to show that when you play, you should check what the winning numbers are yourself...via the 800 lottery hotline for your state, the lottery website, the newspaper (if you still subscribe or buy...but it could have typos or errors so still do one of the previous two), or getting a printout of the winning numbers at a lottery retailer as well as using the self-scan machine to check your ticket (reason for doing both is just to give you sufficient confirmation of the status of the ticket) and by checking at least two of the listed methods for verifying the ticket, there really is no need for you to hand your ticket over to some clerk or even to anyone else to check it for you.
I agree with you, but most store clerks are honest, just trying to make a living like everybody else. I've mentioned this before, but a few years ago I was having a terrible night and absentmindedly left my ticket sleeve with my tickets and change on the counter and the clerk at 7-11 ran after me. (I was already in my car.) Had I won that evening, I would have given her a huge tip!
I'm trying to figure out how they even know about the small prizes he won, that is, any prize under $600. How can they prove he didn't pay it out to a customer?
Anyway, like you said above, even someone who has no intention of stealing your money might make a mistake or there could be a computer glitch. I check the numbers on Lottery Post and the Florida web site.
"via the 800 lottery hotline for your state"
Just curious, where do they have a toll free number to check your numbers? I've lived in 3 states where I've played the lottery regularly and none of them had a toll free number.
Okay, justxploring,
you got me on the 800 lottery hotline. I was in a rush when I blasted out that post. Although I can say I have visited every lotteries website, I only have went to the claims pages of those I actually play. So I was just making a generalization about each lottery's hotline. Some may be 800 numbers and yes some may be regular. The point I was really trying to make is to just call whatever number the lottery lists as well to check via some other method that a person with their own eyes can say they know what the winning numbers actually were.
I will never figure out the logic of some people.
A store sells $50,000 worth of lottery tickets and unless they have several $600 plus winners they wouldn't pay out more than $20,000 in prizes but if a clerk steals $50,000 worth of lottery tickets, they wonder where the $50,000 in prize money went.
Do lottery tickets stolen by clerks pay back 100% while lottery tickets bought by customers pay back only 50% including the big winners that have to be claimed at the state offices?
The Illinois Lottery's hotline is 1-800-252-1775.
"if a clerk steals $50,000 worth of lottery tickets, they wonder where the $50,000 in prize money went."
The reference to $50,000 is about his bail. The story says they haven't figured out how much he won.
I was really just curious. As Coin Toss points out, Illinois has a toll free number. I just didn't know if Florida was being "cheap." They used to have a 900 number on the back of the tickets so it would cost something like 99 cents to call for the winning numbers. (I never used it) Now they just list the number in Tallahassee with the area code.