Tennessee Store Clerk Filched $1M Lottery Ticket, Cops Say

Posted on: July 24, 2024, 07:51h. 

Last updated on: July 24, 2024, 10:23h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.

A Tennessee store clerk has been charged with Class A felony theft of more than $250K for his failed plot to steal a customer’s $1 million winning lottery ticket.

Meet Patel, Tennessee Lottery, Million-dollar ticket, Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office
Meet Patel, above, trashed a customer’s $1 million ticket so that he could later retrieve it and attempt to cash it, according to the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office. He faces a lengthy prison term if convicted. (Image: Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office)

When the clerk, Meet Patel, 23, arrived at the Tennessee Lottery’s Nashville headquarters to claim the jackpot, lottery officials became suspicious and obtained security video from the store, according to a news release from the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office.

“He [Patel] went to the Tennessee Lottery Commission to claim the ticket as his own and through their normal line of questioning there were enough red flags for them to say, ‘Hey, you need to get all of your affairs in order and come back to us and we’re gonna hold on to the ticket,’” Lt. Det. Steve Craig told WTVF.

$1M in the Trash

The video from the day the ticket was sold showed a customer enter the Murfreesboro, Tenn. Shell station and buy two $20 Diamond and Gold scratch-off tickets. The customer asked Patel to immediately check them for wins.

If you scratch off the front bar code on a ticket, the store’s computer system can instantly tell you if it’s a winner, regardless of whether you scratch off the other symbols or not.

The video showed Patel scanning the tickets, both of which were winners. The clerk returned one winning ticket with a jackpot of $40 and threw the million-dollar winner into the trash, according to the sheriff’s office. Later, the video shows Patel fishing out the ticket and putting it in his pocket, authorities said.

Patel is currently being held at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center. His bond has been set at $100K and he’s due in court July 30. In Tennessee, the sentence for a Class A felony is 15–60 years in prison.

“It’s pretty obvious. It’s good enough for me to put in front of 12 jurors and make sure that they all come to the same conclusion,” Craig told WTVF.

Real Winner Found

After reviewing the security footage from the store, the sheriff’s office was able to identify the real winner and notify him of his good fortune. The Antioch, Tenn. dad, who has opted to remain anonymous, was initially skeptical, believing it to be some kind of telephone lottery scam.

“The feel-good side of this story is the [he] never knew he was the winner until we made contact with him,” Craig said. “That is absolutely life-changing money.”