Tennessee Clerk Appropriates $1M Lottery Ticket after Lying to Customer

A clerk at a gas station in Tennessee has lied to a customer in order to snatch their $1 million-winning lottery ticket. Meet Patel, 23, was serving a client at the Shell station in Murfreesboro but purposefully told them that the lottery ticket they had bought was a losing one.

The anonymous customer had bought two $20 Diamond and Gold scratch-off tickets at the station, giving them back to the clerk to check, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department reported. Patel realized that both tickets won but only reported and paid out the $40 prize from one of the tickets. At the same time, the clerk told the customer that the other ticket won nothing despite the fact that it had, in reality, won a million dollars.

As a result, the customer threw the ticket in the trash bin, unaware of the fact that it was worth a whopping $1 million.

Patel then went to take out the trash, surreptitiously taking out the winning ticket and putting it in his pocket.

The Fraud Was “Pretty Obvious”

In an interview with News Channel 5, Lt. Detective Steve Craig said that Patel then tried to claim the prize at the Tennessee Lottery Commission HQ. However, the normal line of questioning immediately raised suspicions, prompting an investigation.

After looking into the matter and checking the surveillance footage, the commission realized what Patel had done. Detective Craig said that the fraud was “pretty obvious” and good enough for him to put in front of 12 jurors and “make sure that they all come to the same conclusion.”

The rightful winner was later identified as a father from Antioch, Tennessee, allowing him to claim his prize.  

The Antioch father isn’t the only player in Tennessee to win a $1 million prize. Another lucky gambler in the state just won $900,000 playing Fanatics 5 Jackpot, Fanatics’ new free-to-play game. He was notably the first Fantasy 5 jackpot winner since the launch of the game.

In other news, the local regulator fined 3 operators over regulatory breaches, slamming them with various fines.