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Woman pleads guilty to theft of lottery tickets

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005 | 9:35 a.m.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- A former convenience store clerk has pleaded guilty to stealing thousands of dollars' worth of scratch-off Hoosier Lottery tickets from two stores she managed.

Karen Valentine was sentenced Tuesday to two years in a work-release program and ordered by a Vanderburgh County Circuit Court judge to pay $2,500 in restitution.

Valentine said she took only $2,000 to $3,000 worth of tickets from the two Busler stores in Evansville where she had worked. However, an outside audit found the combined ticket shortages for the two stores she managed totaled $27,013.20.

Valentine said she helped herself to one or two $1 lottery tickets each time a customer bought a series of tickets.

She told the court she only took one or two tickets a day.

"I don't buy your story about one or two a day. That's unbelievable," Magistrate David Kiely told Valentine in court.

Defense attorney Chris Lenn suggested others had the opportunity to steal the tickets. Valentine was the only on-site employee at both stores.

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