Former retailer employee snatched a whopping 36 books of lottery tickets

By Kate Northrop

SALISBURY, Mo. — A former Missouri Lottery retailer employee admitted to stealing over $24,000 worth of lottery tickets from her own workplace over the course of six months.

A Missouri woman stole about 36 books of lottery tickets for an estimated value of $24,000 from her own workplace, even going so far as to cash some of them right at the store she worked.

Public Missouri Government court documents detail how Kelsey Lynn Schnetzler, 34, of Salisbury, snatched about 36 books of lottery tickets at the retailer she was employed at. Every theft took place at Casey's General Store on North Weber Avenue in Salisbury between the months of October 2023 and March 2024.

In a written statement Schnetzler provided to the Salisbury Police Department, she explained that she would place a cup over the security camera in the store's office, take the keys to the safe that stored the lottery tickets, and then put the stolen tickets in her purse. She would cash some of the tickets on-site at Casey's and some at other locations.

Unfortunately for her, this did not prevent her from getting caught.

Schnetzler committed a class D felony of stealing and was charged with stealing $750 or more. The maximum penalty for the charge carries a prison sentence in the custody of the Missouri Department of Corrections for at least one year but not more than seven, a fine of up to $10,000, or both imprisonment and a fine. The count of stealing $750 or more also states that, should money or property be gained through the commission of the crime, the perpetrator could receive a fine of up to double the amount of the gain.

Schnetzler was issued a summons on June 17, 2024. Her initial court appearance in Chariton County is scheduled for Tues., July 23, 2024.