Circle K is suing an employee in Arizona after he paid for a winning lottery ticket worth $13 million, after a customer left it on the counter despite buying it.
Getting your hands on a winning lottery ticket is, for the majority of people, a life-changing moment. However, in Arizona, it has prompted a legal battle between Circle K and its employee, Robert Gawlitza, who is a manager at one of their stations in Scottsdale.
According to a lawsuit filed on February 21, Circle K claims that it owns the winning ticket, which is worth just under $13 million, because a customer left it in the store. As per the claim, a customer purchased $85 worth of tickets, but only paid for $60 worth of them, with the other $25 worth being put aside.
Circle K alleges that once Gawlitza, the manager of the station, realized that one of those leftover tickets had won, he purchased them for $10 – while off the clock – to try and get the money.
Circle K suing employee over winning lottery ticket
According to MoneyWise, Circle K management has held the ticket at their headquarters for a while now amid the dispute.
Their report also pointed out that, under the Arizona Administrative Code, when a retailer prints a lottery ticket that a customer refuses or abandons and the ticket isn’t resold, it becomes the retailer’s property.
That was backed up by state representative Jeff Weninger, who told AZFamily: “It is in the administrative rules that basically says if they overprint, the retailer owns the tickets.
As per MoneyWise, there is a deadline of May 23 for the money to be claimed. Otherwise the lottery will retain a portion of it for future prize pools, and give some of it to charities, too.
So, the legal dispute will need to be settled sooner rather than later.
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