Statewide Thefts of Lottery Tickets Called a Major Problem

Thieves have struck at least three California lottery ticket outlets in the San Diego area, and about 15 thefts of lottery tickets have been reported statewide since sales began last week, lottery security officials said Tuesday.

“It’s a major problem occurring all over the state,” said Bob Nieto, the retired Los Angeles police officer who heads a two-man security detail in the lottery’s San Diego office.

They are crimes that run a slim chance of paying off, however, officials said. Stolen tickets are voided almost immediately, they said, and anyone redeeming a ticket that has been reported stolen is subject to arrest.

One thief already has been nabbed in Northern California, according to Rick Blim, chief of security operations for the lottery’s northern division.

On Thursday, the lottery’s opening day, the man stole 219 tickets from a convenience store in the Solano County town of Fairfield. The next day, he tried to cash in $2 and $5 winners at the store. An employee called police, who arrested him at the store, Blim said.

“I suppose if it’s worth stealing, they’re going to try to pass them,” Nieto said.

No suspects have been identified in the San Diego County thefts, he said.

The largest theft was discovered early Tuesday at the Sweetwater 6 theaters in National City. A pack of 473 tickets was stolen from the theater’s box office, where they had been left overnight in plain sight, Nieto said. Theater employees speculated that the thief used a clothes hanger to pull the tickets through the box-office window, he said.

About 80 tickets were stolen Friday from Daisy Cleaners on Mira Mesa Boulevard in San Diego, Nieto said. The store was open but the thief went undetected, he said.

Nieto said he had no details about the third incident, a theft from a Winchell’s Donut House.

Lottery officials said their security policies minimize the value of stolen tickets.

As soon as a theft is reported, the serial numbers of the missing tickets are placed in the lottery’s computer, Nieto said. Winning tickets of $100 or more, which must be redeemed through the lottery’s Sacramento office, will not be honored if they have been reported stolen. Merchants are told to alert police if someone tries to redeem a stolen $2 or $5 instant-winner ticket.

Still, a thief could realize some gain from stealing lottery tickets, Nieto acknowledged.

“The only time where somebody might benefit from it is if a guy steals 300 tickets, he might sell them on the street for 50 or 75 cents,” Nieto said. “The people buying them might not be aware they were stolen.”

Thefts also can inconvenience legitimate ticket buyers. Unless a merchant knows exactly which tickets have been stolen, the lottery may need to void more tickets than those taken by a thief, Nieto said--in the worst case, all 500 tickets that originally made up the stolen pack.

A legitimate buyer of one of the voided tickets then would have to prove it was not stolen to collect a prize, he said.

In the theft at Daisy Cleaners in San Diego, for instance, several tickets legitimately purchased had to be voided because store employees had sold from both the top and bottom of a pack of 500 and were uncertain which tickets remained when the pack was stolen, Nieto said.

“We stress to retailers, ‘Start at the beginning,’ ” he said.

Other activity under investigation by lottery officials in San Diego includes ticket sales by unauthorized merchants and sales by licensed retailers at sites other than those approved by the lottery, Nieto said.