It's an amazing way to take a chance.
At the beginning of September, a septuagenarian bought scratch tickets at a tobacco shop in Naples and one of them turned out to be the winner.
Wanting to make sure that she had won the very tidy sum of 500,000 euros, the client had her ticket checked by an employee, who called her boss for an additional check.
But this one was quite simply ... Fled from his establishment with the precious sesame stolen from the winner, reports Capital, which takes up information from the Italian press.
The client quickly lodged a complaint.
Gambling officials froze the winnings of tickets that had been distributed to the relevant tobacco shop.
Turnaround
The suspected thief was finally arrested at Rome Fiumicino airport on his way to the Canaries, police said on Monday.
After his theft, the tobacconist fled to Latina, a city between Naples and Rome, in order to deposit the winning ticket in a bank and be able to cash it later, when things calmed down.
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At the time of his arrest, the Neapolitan tobacconist, whose criminal record was blank, tried to turn the case in his favor by saying he wanted to file a complaint against a woman accusing him of having stolen the scratch ticket, a statement said. .
However, the prosecution did not follow him and opened an investigation for aggravated theft, while his tobacconist's license was suspended.
Justice also ordered the seizure of the game card.
