A former employee of a Wyomissing convenience store stole $1,800 worth of Pennsylvania Lottery scratch-off tickets during her overnight shift, splitting winnings with a man who would cash winning tickets at a nearby store, borough police said.
Casey L. Wampole, 20, of the first block of Salaneck Drive, Union Township, was arraigned Nov. 30 before District Judge Eric J. Taylor and remains free to await a hearing on charges of theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property.
Tyler J. Winterstein, who is accused of cashing the winning tickets, was taken into custody this week. Winterstein, 33, no permanent address, was committed to Berks County Prison in lieu of $1,500 bail to await a hearing following arraignment Wednesday night before District Judge Dean R. Patton in Reading Central Court on charges of conspiring to commit theft and receiving stolen property.
Wyomissing police gave this account in a criminal complaint:
On July 12, an officer was dispatched to the 7-Eleven at 624 Park Road. The manager said she discovered the theft of lottery tickets while doing a routine check on the registers and inventory of lottery tickets. She noticed two packs of lottery tickets were missing from the drawer.
The packs, valued at a total of $1,800, each contained 30 tickets that sold for $30 apiece for the $3 Million Extravaganza lottery.
Management checked register receipts and surveillance camera footage and learned Wampole, who was working the midnight shift on June 27, repeatedly used the register to load proceeds from winning lottery tickets onto prepaid debit cards, which she used to complete the transaction for the winning tickets.
Police contacted Wampole and asked her to come to the police station. She asked if it was about to the thefts. She said she was in the process of saving money to pay back the store for the tickets she took.
During an Aug. 24 interview, Wampole said she and Winterstein worked together to cash in the winnings from tickets she stole.
Officers later spoke to Winterstein, who at the time lived on North Park Road near the store. He said Wampole would hand him lottery tickets and cigarettes out of view of the security cameras and he would cash most of tickets at a nearby convenience store.
Source: Berkshire mont
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