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Supermarket employee confesses to stealing lottery tickets

Posted at 11:12 AM, Jun 13, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-14 06:42:15-04

An employee of a suburban West Palm Beach supermarket is accused of stealing lottery tickets.

Police were called to the Fresco Y Mas Supermarket located at 2675 S. Military Trail on Monday where they met with the store's Loss Prevention Supervisor, Ashley Beckham.

Beckham told police they have been conducting an investigation on an employee, Lekisha Felder, 32, for theft.

 

According to Beckham, it was brought to their attention that Felder was stealing scratch off lottery tickets.

Beckham says Felder was observed ringing a lottery redemption through the register and not removing cash.

Beckham says they suspected that Felder was taking lottery tickets without paying for them.

The camera that views the lottery dispenser, register, and lottery machine was blocked by Felder's positioning of her body, according to Beckham, so the store installed a covert camera to view the area.

During the review of the covert camera footage, Felder was observed removing several $20 and $25 scratch off lottery tickets from the dispenser that she did not pay for.

According to the arrest report, Felder can be seen on the footage scanning the tickets through the lotto machine to see if the tickets were winners.

Police say if the tickets were winners, Felder would then process the lotto redemption through a register, and would later remove the cash from the register at the end of her shift and conceal the money down the front of her pants.

Beckham says Felder was observed removing up to 30 tickets in one day.

Felder was filmed taking tickets worth a total value of $2,215. There are approximately $7,000 worth of lottery tickets not accounted for and missing from store inventory.

According to an arrest report, Beckham interviewed Felder, who confessed to stealing the lottery tickets and provided a sworn written statement.

Felder spoke with police and confessed to stealing about $9,000 worth of lottery tickets since April 2017.

Felder told police that she stole the money to feed her four children.

Felder was arrested and booked into the Palm Beach County Jail and faces grand theft charges.