Throughout the region police are looking for a man and a woman who have teamed up to steal hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth in lottery tickets from area convenience stores.
It happened again recently at a 7-Eleven on Ritchie Highway in Brooklyn. The male theft suspect opens the door for his female accomplice and a customer before going into action--action captured by the store's multiple security cameras.
"Our own system has 16 cameras inside," said Assistant Manager Kaleem Raza.
The thieves wander through the store, ordering up a Slurpee one moment, four pricey $20 stratch-offs the next.
After spending a good five minutes inside, they're ready to check out, but instead the thieves snatch the lottery tickets at the last second and take off.
Corporal Jacklyn Davis of the Anne Arundel County Police Department says the thieves then race against the clock to cash in on their prize.
"Very quickly, they're scratching those off and cashing them in at another location before they're able to report those as stolen lottery tickets," said Davis, "There are two other jurisdictions involved and we're looking into double digits as far as cases that these two have committed."
The duo has struck almost daily over the last week, and they're leaving plenty of pictures, and in this case, the suspect's hat in their wake, not to mention pictures of their getaway car, and they've also left many victims shaken over the bold nature of their crimes.
"We don't know if they have any weapon or something,” said Rameen Fatima, a cashier, “They could do anything. If they can do that, they can do anything. You can expect anything. Anything could happen so it was really scary for us."
Police say the crime only works if the couple cashes in smaller prizes at other businesses, because striking a big jackpot would surely get them arrested at Lottery Commission headquarters.
You know the suspects or have any information that could help police, you can call metro crime stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
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