(Columbus,Ohio--)) An Ohio convenience store owner says a former employee stole thousands of dollars worth of lottery tickets, hit the jackpot, and then hit the road.
Sam Shalash owns a Marathon Station on Harmon Avenue in Columbus.
He says for the last several months, he has been unknowingly taken.
In surveillance video, you can see an employee behind the counter holding several instant scratch-off tickets. He scratches the tickets just out of view. The problem? Shalash says the tickets are among hundreds, if not thousands, the employee never paid for. Shalash says the employee must have stolen more than $2,000 worth of tickets.
Then, on October 1, the employee told Shalash a customer had scratched off a winning ticket worth $2,000,000. Shalash tried to locate the customer but failed. After reviewing surveillance footage, as well as sales figures that indicate lottery theft, the store was thousands of dollars short in lottery sales. Shalash claims a customer didn't win the jackpot at all -- that the ticket was in his employee's back pocket.
On Monday, the employee of two-and-a-half years up and quit and disappeared. The $2,000,000 before taxes had already been paid out.
Shalash has contacted the Ohio Lottery Commission. Columbus police are investigating.
The employee has not been charged with any crime.
(WCMH-TV contributed to this story)
