- Video shows surveillance footage of two burglars at Midway Market and Liquor, the store that sold a $1.7 billion winning lottery ticket.
- At around 3:27 a.m. on Tuesday, two people in black hoodies and white facemasks broke into the market.
- The thieves stole rows of lottery tickets, high-end tequila, and cigarettes.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
You may recognize the Midway Market as the local store that sold a billion dollar lottery ticket.
While it’s garnered a ton of community support, it seems all the publicity may come at a cost.
Midway Market owner, Andy Khalil, walks us frame-by-frame through the security video.
“It took them only like a minute and a half, that’s it,” said Khalil.
Two thieves shattered the glass door before rushing to the register.
Khalil said he was up at 3:00 a.m. that morning. “I just want to check the weather in the area,” Khalil said. “As soon as I picked up my phone, the alarm company sent me a notification, it seems like someone entered the store.”
The thieves dressed in black hoodies and white face masks were in and out of the market in less than three minutes.
The incident has has left Khalil on edge. “It makes me nervous, but at the same time, thank God the damage is not big, or none of my employees were in the store,”
The burglars stole high-end tequila, cigarettes, and rows of lottery tickets.
The store's lottery tickets fput the market in the international spotlight back in October after it was the point of sale of a $1.7 billion winning ticket.
Which raises the question – can those lottery tickets be tracked?
Carolyn Becker with California Lottery said, “When scratchers tickets are stolen, our retail partners, they actually have a 24 hour hotline they can use to call us.”
said the California Lottery's Carolyn Becker.
In fact, if reported in time, the scratchers can be deactivated.
Also, people are required to claim $600 or more of winnings.
“Our message to thieves is you’re not gonna get away with much by stealing California lottery tickets,” said Becker. “Because we do build so many security features into the ticket and we do have these ways of deactivating them.”
While hoping for more details to come forward, Midway Market is starting to up its security.
Despite the recent notoriety and the subsequent break-in, Khalil
still looks back on selling the billion dollar lottery ticket with pride.
“You gotta take the good with the bad.”
Anyone with information on the suspects are encouraged to reach out to the Midway Market or KCSO.
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