How an Indian-origin man stole a $1 million winning lottery ticket from an American man and tried and failed miserably to redeem it
Two years ago, an Indian-American man named Meer Patel found himself at the center of a massive lottery fraud in Tennessee after he was accused of trying to claim a $1 million winning scratch card that belonged to someone else.Patel, then 23, was arrested and charged with theft of more than $250,000 after stealing a winning lottery ticket from a customer at a gas station where he worked in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.The customer purchased two Diamond and Gold scratch-off coupons at a Shell gas station. Rather than scratching the ticket himself, the man simply showed the barcode and asked Patel to scan them to see if they were the winner. Police said the winning lottery ticket was worth $40, and Patel paid the winnings to the customer. However, the second ticket is worth $1 million.Patel mistakenly told the customer that the ticket was not the winner and threw it in the trash. Customers leave the store believing they have no more bonuses to win.What happened next was captured on the store’s surveillance video.“Store video obtained by Tennessee Lottery investigators Vic Donoghue and Greg Hyman shows the clerk allegedly taking out the trash, removing the winning ticket and placing it in his pocket,” the Sheriff’s Office said.Patel later scratched off the front of the ticket, revealing the prize amount, and realized he was holding a million-dollar prize.Detective Inspector Dennis Ward said: “Mr. Patel can then be seen on video celebrating in the store by scratching off the front of the ticket and learning it was the $1 million winner.”Investigators also viewed video that showed Patel scanning lottery tickets, discarding the winning ticket and retrieving it after the customer left.Police said Patel then went to the Tennessee Lottery headquarters in Nashville to claim his winnings. According to lottery rules, any prize worth $200,000 or more must be claimed in person at the organization’s headquarters.However, lottery officials soon became suspicious.“He went to the Tennessee Lottery Commission and asked for the ticket to be his, and through their normal questioning, there were enough red flags for them to say, ‘Hey, you need to get all your affairs in order and come back to us and we’ll keep the ticket,'” detection. Steve Craig told WTVF. This makes what Patel did “very obvious”.Concerns raised by lottery staff sparked the investigation. Tennessee Lottery investigators obtained surveillance footage from the gas station and shared their findings with law enforcement authorities.Patel was arrested on July 22, 2024 and charged with stealing more than $250,000. He was subsequently held at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center on $100,000 bail while awaiting court appearance.Meanwhile, detectives try to find the customer who unknowingly gave up a life-changing jackpot. After reviewing store footage, they tracked him down and told him he was in fact the rightful owner of the winning ticket.“The feel-good aspect of this story is that this (man) never knew he was a winner until we contacted him,” Craig said. “This is absolutely life-changing money.”According to investigators, the man was shocked and grateful when he learned he was a millionaire.
