An employee from an Iowa lottery retailer, along with her boyfriend and mother have been charged with theft after an alleged attempt to claim a scratch off worth $250,000 according to American news sources.
Prosecutors believe that Ashley Bosler, who was an employee at Casey’s General store was scratching off the corners of tickets to scan the bar codes, and it was by doing this that she found the $250,000 winning ticket. However, Casey is only 20 and therefore too young to claim the prize. Eventually she asked her boyfriend to cash the ticket for her, but it’s claimed that as the ticket was never paid for, this is a $250,000 theft, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison if the trio are found guilty.
Bosler and her boyfriend have both been charged with theft of a lottery ticket, her mother Sally, with aiding and abetting. Her mother claims that she wasn’t aware that she had broken the law stating that she really thought they had won and was unaware of the theft. However prosecutors believe that her mother took $20 to her at the time of the theft so she could cover the cost of the ticket, after it was scratched off. Sally Bosler claims to have no idea what the money she gave her daughter, Ashley was spent on, and said she would never condone the purchase of lottery tickets by her underage daughter.
The trio, from Sioux Rapids in North West Iowa have all been assigned public defenders and the case into the theft will be forthcoming.
Scratchcard thefts aren’t an uncommon crime and this isn’t the first case of a shop employee attempting to manipulate the scratch card system. Whatever happens it seems unlikely that Ashley Bosler will receive her prize.