Tennessee employee 'steals million-dollar lottery ticket' after father won jackpot

A fortunate father in Tennessee nearly lost a lottery ticket worth a million dollars , if it wasn't for the sharp-eyed detectives who discovered that a shop clerk had attempted to steal it. The lucky winner had purchased two winning tickets from a local Shell petrol station in Murfreesboro and handed them over to Meer Patel, 23, the store clerk at the time.

Patel cunningly paid the dad for the lesser-winning ticket and discarded the million-dollar winner into the trash can. He was l ater caught on CCTV footage celebrating in the store after scratching off the front of the ticket and confirming its value of $1 million, as per the detectives.

" Store video obtained by Investigators Vic Donoho and Greg Heiman of the Tennessee Lottery showed the clerk allegedly taking out the trash, removing the winning ticket, and placing it in his pocket," stated the sheriff's office. Patel was swiftly apprehended when he tried to claim the prize from the Tennessee Lottery as the staff immediately suspected something was amiss.

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Patel now faces charges related to the theft of over $250,000. The ticket was promptly returned to its rightful owner and the detectives reported that the fortunate winner, who was unaware of the clerk's deceitful attempt, was extremely grateful, reports the Mirror US .

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

Patel is in custody at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center, with bail set at a hefty $100,000. He's due back in court on July 30. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania , another lucky punter has credited his windfall to a savvy store clerk's tip. Jeremy H pocketed a cool $1.14 million after playing the Match 6 game.

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The Pennsylvanian said he's not usually one for Match 6, but a chat with a clued-up clerk at Rutter's convinced him to have a punt. "I don't normally play Match 6, but the clerk at Rutter's told me they get a lot of winners, so for the past few months, I've been buying tickets once a week," he said.

May 20 turned out to be Jeremy's lucky day in the sun as he snagged a winning Match 6 ticket from the Rutter's on West Main Street in Fawn Grove, York County. He had actually forgotten to check if he'd won anything until a mobile alert gave him a nudge.

"I left the ticket on my kitchen counter and forgot to check it," he admitted. "I got an alert on my phone that Monday from NewsBreak saying a winning ticket was sold at the Rutter's."

The realization that he was the winner from Rutter's hit him like a ton of bricks. "I immediately called my brother and said, 'You will never believe this!"

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