A woman faces a preliminary hearing on charges she stole $48,000 worth of instant-win Pennsylvania lottery tickets from the convenience store where she worked.
Online court records do not list an attorney for 39-year-old Diane Justi, of Freedom.
Police in Conway say Justi stole the tickets while working at the Conway Superette between April and September.
Police say one of the store's owners alerted them to the thefts. Police say store surveillance tapes clearly showed Justi stealing the tickets.
Justi was arraigned Thursday on a theft charge and faces a preliminary hearing Dec. 18.
The Associated Press could not find a listed telephone for Justi.
I guess some people just don't learn the lesson that "CRIME DOES NOT PAY'. However, I want to know why it took the business owner so long to report this theft--someone should have caught her sooner if they had surveillance tapes running everyday.
This clerk was a moron!! Working at the store, wouldn't you know about the camaras there watching every move you make?
It does not state whether she won anything substantial so my guess is that she didn't, ouch!
There will always be people out there, willing to steal things that don't belong to them.
I'm glad, they caught her.
makes you wonder if she cant win stealling $48k worth of scratchers what chance do I have when paying for em?
Instants are designed to make the state money. The odds play out. You win by playing once in a while for fun. My father spent way more than $48k and didn't win jack. You've got to know your odds.
If everyone could get away with that or if everyone could win... then everyone would have a lot of $. The problem is it doesn't produce any additional products for people to buy with all that $. Hey.. isn't our Government doing kind of the same thing??
Scratch-offs can't be systemized (usually..I have some theories on a few of them). If you hate computerized drawings then the scratch-offs are the same thing in a way. I usually only get them when a new game comes out or for something to do while waiting for my pancakes at IHOP.
She probably was praying every time she stole a few that one of them would be a big winner so she could quite her job and help others.
Feel free to correct this if I am misunderstanding.
The Store buys the tickets from the Lottery. THe lottery gets its money upfront. SO this Theft is not really Lottery related (in so much as the Lottery is making the charges against this person), but rather the store is getting her for theft? So she'll do three months probation and plop one dollar down on a QP for PB and win! Only to have her story told in the form of "poor me to rich me saga...."
I am not surprised at this type of behavior though, seen far too many clerks in the mom and pop shops scratching tickets that I know they didnt pay for...instead they cash in the winner to offset the losing ones.....and to them its not theft....go figure...
Ps- Just realized it was a convenience store, wished they gave the name so folks know that the tickets sold there are mostly losers :)
You got that right, savagegoose.
There is a lesson to be learned here.
Don't buy scratchers in Pennsylvania!
$48,000 worth of tickets and no substantial winners? Whoa.
Yes, she was praying every time she stole a few that one of them would be a big winner -- so she could pay back what she had stolen and skip town. But none of this was done to help others. It was to help herself to free money.
I also hear lots of people say, "If I win the lottery I'll give 1/3 of it to the church." Or 1/2 or whatever figure you think will catch God's attention. Or maybe not to a church, maybe to some charity. Thing is, God can't be bribed. And he doesn't need the money. He has enough.
And God expects you to give some of what you already have to the church or charity; He doesn't want you to wait until you strike it rich. Giving to bless others when you are not rich is better for you than giving to bless others when you are rich.
In the Bible, Job went through a tremendous test. He lost all his wealth, health and most of his family. His friends accused him of being the problem. His wife turned against him. But at the end of the book, when he forgave his friends fro their false accusations and even prayed a blessing on them (in spite of what they had done), God healed him and then blessed him twice as much as what he had before. Until then, he was feeling sorry for himself, didn't understand what had happened and spent a lot of time being angry at God. But he apologized to God for questioning Him and sinking into the pity party -- and when he started thinking about other people than himself, he was then blessed and healed.
So, the point of the story is don't feel sorry for yourself. And when you reach out to others, no matter how little you have (Job had nothing, only forgiveness and prayer), THAT is when you will probably be blessed. But don't do it for that reason. Do it because you want to help others.
True.
Help others??? I doubt that very much.
It is hard to believe that she stole $48,000 worth of scratch tickets.
They would have caught her earlier, but now they can blame it all on her.
I think she stole a few and now it is worth 48,000. right tell us anything.