A Ridgeland, South Carolina man was sentenced to time served, restitution and three years of probation in Beaufort County General Sessions Court Monday after pleading guilty to 12 charges of trying to cash stolen lottery tickets, court records state.
Albert Garvin, 37, was arrested last December on charges that he tried to cash the stolen lottery tickets at Publix on Pembroke Drive and the Shell gas station at the intersection of William Hilton Parkway and Spanish Wells Road, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office said at the time.
A box of tickets was stolen from the Pantry on Gumtree Road the morning of Nov. 19. Garvin cashed some of the tickets at Publix, but a computer warned a cashier at the Shell station that the tickets were stolen and payment was withheld.
Garvin's sentence includes $1,659 in restitution payments. He was released from the Beaufort County Detention Center on Tuesday, according to the jail's Web log.
More than 276,000 in lottery tickets have been stolen since the S.C. Education Lottery began on Jan. 7, 2002. That figure represents less than 1 percent of all tickets sold, S.C. Lottery Commission spokeswoman Tara Robertson said.
The criminal went to s-Hell all right!!