Fired Harmar gas station clerk faces charges he stole $4,300 worth of winning lottery tickets, cash
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Harmar Township police arrested a former gas station clerk on charges that he stole more than $4,300 worth of winning lottery tickets and cash during a one-week period in November.
Joshua Andrew Lang, 19, of Spruce Street, Verona was charged Jan. 26 with a felony count of theft by deception along with a misdemeanor count of theft by unlawful taking.
A date for Lang’s preliminary hearing before District Judge David J. Sosovicka has not yet been scheduled, according to court records.
Police said they questioned Lang after American Natural Gas Co. officials confronted him about the missing money and tickets, according to the criminal complaint.
A company manager told police that Lang was fired after he allegedly admitted to the thefts, the complaint said.
Investigators were provided with surveillance video from the store on Rich Hill Road along with reports from daily lottery sales and cash register receipts for Nov. 19 to 26. That’s the period during which the company said the thefts occurred, according to the complaint.
Police said Lang corroborated the information from the receipts and the video and admitted to using a scheme to steal the winnings from the lottery tickets.
The complaint said he told police that during his work shifts, he processed Fast Play instant tickets through a separate register used for lottery sales in the store. He then rang them up on the gas station’s register without paying for them, the complaint said.
Police said he also stole payouts from scratch-off instant tickets by tearing off the bar code and then scanning the remaining portion of the ticket for winners using an application on his cellphone.
After scanning the bar code into the lottery register as a winner, Lang rang it up on the gas station’s regular register to steal the payout, according to his arrest papers.
Police said security video also showed Lang periodically removing cash from the register.
Company officials said the cash stolen totaled about $700 and the winnings from the lottery tickets amounted to a little more than $3,600, according to the complaint.