San Jose - A sting operation by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department has resulted in a group of South Bay convenience store clerks facing charges of stealing winning Lottery tickets. The California Lottery aided in the investigation.
The California Lottery printed up a number of winning Lottery tickets for the deputies to use while they went undercover. The deputies would walk into convenience stores, hand those winning tickets to the clerk and wait to see what happened next.
In nine cases, the clerk scanned the ticket, saw that it was a winner, but told the deputy, "Sorry. Better luck next time." In several cases, the clerks turned around and tried to cash those winning tickets for themselves.
