An employee at a Circle K is being taken to court over a lottery ticket.
AZ Family reported that a customer purchased several tickets for “The Pick” game.
The clerk printed $85 worth of tickets, but the customer bought $60 of them at $1 a piece on Nov. 24, 2024, KPNX reported. The other 25 tickets were set aside and not sold until the next day.
The lawsuit claims that’s when store manager, Robert Gawlitza, realized that one of the tickets was a jackpot winner. So, the suit said he clocked out, removed his uniform and had another employee ring him up for the remaining tickets for a total of $10, including the winning one, AZ Family reported. He signed the ticket after purchasing it, according to KPNX.
But according to lottery rules, the tickets were owned by the store.
“It is in the administrative rules that basically says if they overprint that the retailer owns the tickets,” state Rep. Jeff Weninger, chairman of the House Commerce Committee in Arizona, said.
Circle K is suing, using the administrative rules, to determine if the ticket was sold and who owns it, and more importantly, who gets the $12.8 million.
Once Circle K management found out what happened, they instructed employees to hold the ticket at corporate offices. That’s where it currently is located, KPNX reported.
The jackpot was one of the largest in the state’s history.
The deadline to claim the jackpot is 180 days after it is drawn. That’s May 23, 2026, according to KPNX.
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