Store clerk stole winning lottery ticket
October 22, 2009 by admin
Filed under Lottery News
It is alleged that a store clerk in Texas, US has pocketed an elderly man’s $1 million winning lottery ticket after being asked to check the result on the processing computer. The store clerk stole the winning lottery ticket, telling the elderly man that hadn’t been lucky this time.
25 year old Pankaj Joshi stole 67 year old Willis Willis’ winning Mega Millions Megaplier ticket after being asked to see if it was a winner. Joshi falsely claimed the prize of around $750,000 after taxes from the Mega Millions lottery claim centre in Austin, Texas then had the winnings transferred to a bank account and disappeared, possibly to his native Nepal. Joshi transferred some of the money to various international bank accounts after receiving the stolen lottery winnings. Authorities managed to recover $365,000 from Joshi’s US bank account but the rest of the lottery cash has disappeared with the lottery thief.
Investigators believe Joshi may have returned to his home county of Nepal. When he quit his job in June, Joshi said he was returning home to help his cousin with her perfume business. Lottery thief Joshi was charged with one count of claiming a lottery prize by fraud and if convicted, could face up to 20 years behind bars.
Mr Willis is a regular customer at the store where he bought his winning lottery ticket even though he is upset about the missing money, he still buys lottery tickets at the store.
If you want to avoid being the victim of a lottery theft like this the simple way to make sure you get your lottery winnings is to buy tickets for the lottery online. This way you can check the lottery results safely without the risk of somebody pocketing your winning ticket. In fact you will be notified of any winning tickets you have bought.
