Store clerk accused of stealing $1M lottery ticket from customer

Comment #32

RJOh — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:27:10 GMT

Well it's happened again, this time it was in Columbus,Ohio and it's the store owner who complained he owned the ticket. He didn't suspect anything until after the worker quited and cashed in a $2M scratch-off.

http://www2.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/local/article/owner_worker_stole_lottery_tickets_hit_jackpot/26107/

What's up with people from the mid-east working in stores selling lottery tickets, hitting a jackpot and then hitting the road

Comment #31

RJOh — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:26:52 GMT

Remember the TV ad campaign Don't help a good kid go bad by leaving you keys in your car

Maybe someone should start a new one....

Don't help a good clerk go bad by having him check your lottery tickets, do it yourself .

Comment #30

Stack47 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:06:11 GMT

You would be surprised how many people don't check their tickets; I've had people ask me what the MM numbers were on a date two months ago. Another problem is people watch the drawings and write down the numbers as they are drawn and believe their numbers must be in the same order. We wonder how they can do that but they don't play very often and there are games where the numbers must be in the exact order.

Some people buy MM and PB tickets without knowing there are secondary prizes and/or th... [ More ]

Comment #29

lillian — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:22:45 GMT

Why play if you are not going to check what number throw,

Comment #28

PERDUE — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:39:32 GMT

Just because a store has no self-check ticket scanner, does not excuse the carelessness or laziness of the ticket owner for not doing it his/herself. Every state/country has self check of tickets available. It's called Check It Yourself. There is no lottery player alive that can justify not checking their tickets after the drawing. There are newspapers, the lottery website, the Lottery Post, the results printout, the 800 or 900 number to call for results. Need I go on?

Nor is there any valid... [ More ]

Comment #27

corius$1918! — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:12:12 GMT

I hope this man get the money which rightfully belonged to him. He should be thankful to the store owner and clerks who became suspicious of their co-worker sudden quitting and notifying authorities of his claiming the prize for himself.

I too am guilty of having my tickets checked by store clerks. I 'll never know if a ticket I had for Hold em Poker was a winner or not, but I always suspected that it may have won. From that point on, I get nonwinning tickets back from the clerks.

als... [ More ]

Comment #26

savagegoose — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:27:27 GMT

aww cmon people there is at least 2 convienence store owners who aint that bad, the ones who tipped of the lotto commision and got this old battler part of his winnings. sure he mAYbe dumb, and trusting and naive, but a world where people are trusting and not always watching out incase they are done over is a nicer world than one where you dont trust anyone.

well im glad he gets some of it. as the guy who claimed the win paid tax that isnt rightfully his, the state should hand it back to... [ More ]

Comment #25

fwlawrence — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:07:56 GMT

He never saw the drawing on TV,he later told investigators, because he didn't know how to find it.

What you talkin' about Willis Willis

Comment #24

Todd — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:17:07 GMT

I deleted several political rants, and a couple of attacks. Please keep the politics in the blogs. If you'd like to discuss any of this political stuff with me, as far as what gets deleted and why, feel free to send me a PM, but please do not post those comments or questions in this thread.

Comment #23

bashley572 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:08:52 GMT

Nope- IRS can only tax you on what you received, not what you 'should have' received. They are good but not that good.

Comment #22

PERDUE — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:55:36 GMT

Yup the IRS did get their cut. But guess what, they're gonna get paid again from this. How? Correct me if I am wrong..... When the ticket was cashed in by the crooked clerk, he was taxed for the one million dollar amount. Now, when/if Willis get the remaining money he will be taxed by the IRS because it will be considered income. Just because the money went to and was taxed under the crooked clerk's name as income will not get Willis from under the obligation of paying taxes on his windfall. Now... [ More ]

Comment #21

PERDUE — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:41:23 GMT

Comment #20

rdgrnr — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:18:23 GMT

Well, at least the IRS got their cut. At least we can all be happy and thankful for that, right? Yesiree,Bob!

I'm so ecstatically happy I'm beside myself.

Comment #19

joshuakim — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:08:42 GMT

poor willis... i hope he will be able to receive the portion of the retrieved winnings.

Comment #18

Nino224 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:04:17 GMT

He spent $20 on 3 lottery tickets? What game is that?

I'm always amazed at how careless people can be. Why would you trust a $7 an hour clerk to check to see if you're holding millions of dollars?? At the very least you should stand there and watch them then ask for your ticket back. In that Dateline lottery investigation more than 50 of the clerks were busted lying about a winning ticket. It's bizarre.

Comment #17

PERDUE — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:39:59 GMT

Willis stated that he plans to continue to play the lottery, but not at the Lucky Food Store. He is too stupid to purchase tickets anywhere else. If his sorry azz got robbed at the Lucky Food Store then it is a given that his sorry azz will get robbed again elsewhere. He should be on his knees thanking the store owner and the employees for figuring out that his sorry azz was robbed!!! The ungrateful puppy!!! The store did not rob him, the greedy clerk did. I think the store owner and the store c... [ More ]

Comment #16

KY Floyd — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:25:22 GMT

who in the hell haves the same first and last name?

Sounds like another case of bad parenting.

Comment #15

tiggs95 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:50:21 GMT

Some people should not be alowed to gamble..

Comment #14

OldSchoolPa — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:49:01 GMT

Well one is a case of someone who didn't really need to win the lottery winning the lottery...the Doctor; the other is a cheesehead. I think the Sargento (imagine that...the other 100 or so cheeseheads) powerball winners were the highlight of Powerball winners from Wisconsin. Better to highlight the scandals. But congrats to the Dr. who is going to funnel much of his winnings to charity and the cheesehead who lost his brother a few years ago...now it's my time to shine and win!

But if the Doc... [ More ]

Comment #13

maringoman — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:24:59 GMT

What a scambug, I hope they extradite him from wherever he ran off to and send him to jail.

A life without honor and integrity is not worth living. I'm broke but I ain't gonna cheat, I just cut back on things.

I'm glad the coworkers did the right thing.

Comment #12

diamondpalace — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:08:04 GMT

I think a guide on how to check, and cash in your ticket is needed. With all the guides on how to filter and select numbers seemed not as important when comes to the final few steps in claiming it! Too many of these kind of stories really makes you wonder the capability of human nature.

Comment #11

konane — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:39:25 GMT

Check your own tickets yourself ..... sign ticket first and make copies of signed ticket.

Call lottery hotline for winning numbers

Check lottery website for winning numbers

Check Lottery Post for winning numbers

Check USAMega.com for winning numbers

Use self check terminals to check your ticket

Ask for winning print outs from lottery terminals .... but ...

Do not let the winning ticket leave your hands until you turn it in at the state lottery office.

Comment #10

ThatScaryChick — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:11:06 GMT

I would never trust a clerk or anyone else for that matter, to check my tickets. I always check my tickets online first. Always. That way, I know what I won ahead of time. These stories, are way to common to end up trusting a ticket that could be worth thousands or millions to a clerk that you barely know.

Comment #9

kennedygrandma — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:51:11 GMT

The clerk that stole the winnig ticket will not get anything good from it. He will lose the money one way or another.

You cannot do people like that and get away with it.Something will happen to him sooner or later.

Comment #8

time*treat — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:15:51 GMT

The IRS, which wins no matter what ...

Comment #7

rcbbuckeye — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:53:46 GMT

Excellent point on the megaply.

I buy my tics at the same convenience store all the time, and while the people that own the store are the ones that I usually buy from, and they are very nice, I always, always check my tics at home before I go to cash them in. I know how much I won before I go.

Comment #6

qwerty928 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:46:19 GMT

How stupid can one person be ?

He does not watch drawings, it takes seconds to check in the newspaper, ask for a number printout

any of those would told him it was a winner then he should of signed the ticket

what really should made him suspicious he megaplied so winning 2 dollars is impossible

Comment #5

dpoly1 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:09:56 GMT

I check my own tickets - not difficult !

By the way, 2 Powerball Winners and nothing on LotteryPost

Comment #4

x1kosmic — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:09:54 GMT

The young Clerk knows he did something wrong

I wouldn't like that cloud hanging over my head

I wonder how well he sleeps at night

Comment #3

bomatt — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:02:35 GMT

Why do they take them to the convenience store?

Trust no one.

Check online and take it to the branch office.

Comment #2

kumazi30 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:45:08 GMT

This is why I always sign my tickets and do not let any convenience store or liquor store clerk check it for me. I do it myself. I am happy he will be getting at least some of his money. Shame on that convenience store clerk

Comment #1

s5thomps — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:44:43 GMT

Well I'm glad they were able to at least seize part of the money! I wonder why it took the store manager 2 months to notify the lottery commission? This should be a lesson to Mr. Willis to never trust a clerk with lottery tickets and to check his own darn tickets! All he had to do was to get a print out of the winning numbers from the store clerk. They will print out the numbers for you upon request and he could have compared the numbers to his ticket in the privacy of his own home. Once he foun... [ More ]

Store clerk accused of stealing $1M lottery ticket from customer

Lottery Post — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:58:50 GMT

Willis Willis may have had the winning lottery ticket, but it was the convenience store clerk who had his number.

As authorities tell it, years of playing the Texas lottery finally paid off for the Grand Prairie man in May when he walked into the Lucky Food Store with a million-dollar ticket.

But in a double twist of tortured fortune, an opportunistic clerk may have cheated him out of his ticket and his treasure.

Now, while Willis waits to be a millionaire, police are searching for the