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A lottery thief allegedly stole tickets while on a job interview, before he tried to claim his winnings.
Antonio Levon Ricardo Stewart, 36, from South Carolina, USA, was arrested on August 25 after allegedly pilfering a pack of scratch-off lottery tickets from a petrol station where he had gone for a job interview.
The 36-year-old faces three counts of intent to defraud involving counterfeit game tickets, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
The unusual incident took place at a Murphy USA outlet in Florence, situated in Horry County.
Stewart was reportedly at the premises for a job interview on May 6 last year, when he is said to have seized the opportunity to pocket a pack of South Carolina Education Lottery scratch-off tickets.
Arrest documents indicate the entire alleged theft was captured on surveillance footage.
Following the supposed theft, Stewart is accused of visiting three separate shops in the Florence area in an effort to cash in tickets from the stolen pack.
His attempts proved largely unsuccessful, though he did manage to redeem one of the purloined tickets for a modest $5 cash prize.
Antonio Levon Ricardo Stewart was on the run for more than a year
|HORRY COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT/FACEBOOK
The incident prompted authorities to act swiftly, with a warrant for Stewart's arrest being issued later in May 2025.
Despite the relatively quick investigation, it took considerably longer before he was actually apprehended.
More than a year elapsed between the warrant being issued and Stewart's eventual arrest on August 25, though the reasons for this lengthy delay remain unclear.
Upon being taken into custody, he was processed and booked into the Florence County Detention Center.
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Despite the relatively quick investigation, it took considerably longer before he was actually apprehended
|HORRY COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT/FACEBOOK
This comes after a National Lottery thief was released from prison early, despite not paying back the cash he stole.
Edward Putman, 56, was jailed for nine years in October 2019, when with the help of Camelot insider Giles Knibbs, stole £2.5million.
The 56-year-old only paid back £94,000 from his Camelot con, with financial investigators forced to seize his assets and put his home up for auction.
They had threatened to extend his sentence if he failed to settle a £939,000 confiscation order.
But instead of extending his sentence, he was instead freed under the Government's End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL), after only serving half of his sentence, the Daily Mirror reports.