A gas station worker in Arizona is facing a lawsuit from his employer after he allegedly kept a winning $12.8m lottery ticket. The Circle K manager bought a bundle of tickets for $10 after he found out one contained the jackpot-winning numbers.
The extra tickets were the result of a clerical error, as a clerk printed 85 tickets worth $1 each when a customer paid for only 60. The other 25 tickets were left on the counter overnight.
Robert Gawlitzka allegedly learned that the store sold the winning ticket and went through the bundle of printed tickets to find it. He quickly clocked out of his shift, changed out of his Circle K uniform, and bought the bundle of leftover tickets from another worker.
said the winning ticket should be kept at the corporate office until a judge decides
Circle K management learned of this purchase and said the winning ticket should be kept at the corporate office until a judge decides who is actually entitled to the jackpot.
Circle K cited the Arizona Administrative Code in its complaint, stating that the retailer has property claims to lottery tickets that customers refuse to buy and that are unsold. Talking to AZFamily, a spokesperson for the Arizona Lottery said that it’s a unique situation and it’s “not aware of any prior litigation of this sort” in the state.
