NRI woman, 7-Eleven's employee arrested for theft customer's lottery winnings $550,000
If convicted she could face up to four years in state prison

Roseville, California, August 24 2007
Sant Parkash Singh

NRI Rajinder Kaur, 40, an employee at the 7-Eleven at 1900 Douglas Blvd. in Roseville, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of grand theft of customer's lottery winnings $550,000.

A man has a language barrier who purchased five sets of numbers at the 7-Eleven market two days earlier and had used his own numbers to play. He went to her store to check on his lottery tickets. After running the ticket through a scanning machine, Rajinder told the customer he won $4 on his Mega Millions picks for Aug. 14. She paid him $4 and kept the ticket to cash later on.

The customer, who heard through news reports a winning lottery ticket purchased at the location had gone unclaimed, according to a California Lottery press release.

The winning Mega Millions numbers that week were 5, 8, 9, 24 and 34. The victom also kept looking with confusion at the winning numbers, knowing he had played them. The customer became suspicious and called lottery officials.

The officials said:

• California Lottery police officers immediately opened an investigation and visited the location, assisted by the Roseville Police Department
• The ticket was recovered
• They interviewed people, collected evidence arrested her on Tuesday and booked into the Placer County jail in Auburn, Calif., on suspicion of grand theft.
• She was released on $50,000 bail.
• They would work with the complainant, retailer 7-Eleven and law enforcement agencies to finalize the investigation and thoroughly validate the owner of the winning ticket.
• It is estimate the man will receive $416,000 after taxes.

If Rajinder Kaur convicted of grand theft with an enhancement, she could face up to four years in state prison.

California Lottery encourages players to sign the backs of their tickets as soon as they purchase them.