Dad didn’t know he won $1M lottery prize because store clerk stole ticket, TN cops say

A store clerk pocketed a dad’s winning lottery ticket and tried to claim the $1 million prize himself, Tennessee authorities said.

Now, the clerk, 23-year-old Meet Patel, is charged with theft over $250,000, according to the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office.

McClatchy News reached out to the public defender’s office on July 23 to reach Patel’s attorney for comment but did not immediately hear back.

The real winner bought two winning tickets at a Shell gas station in Murfreesboro and went up to Patel for the prizes, the sheriff’s office said in a July 22 news release.

The dad didn’t know how much his tickets were worth, so Patel gave him the smaller prize and threw the other ticket in the trash, deputies said.

But later, Patel is captured on the store’s surveillance footage taking the winning ticket out of the trash and putting it in his pocket, investigators with the Tennessee Lottery said.

Then he’s seen on video scratching the ticket, looking at the $1 million prize and celebrating in the store, officials said.

Patel tried to claim the prize himself, but lottery officials said they were suspicious and began investigating. They asked local law enforcement for help and eventually identified the rightful owner of the ticket.

The Antioch dad “never knew he was the winner until we made contact with him,” detective Steve Craig with the sheriff’s office said in the release. “That is absolutely life-changing money.”

Using cameras from the Murfreesboro Police Department and store footage, they found the winner.

Initially, the man was skeptical that he had really won the money, but a detective encouraged him to claim the prize, according to deputies.

“He was very thankful,” Craig said.

Murfreesboro is about a 35-mile drive southeast from downtown Nashville.

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