HIALEAH, Fla. – Luck didn’t favor a Hialeah gas station clerk who was busted stealing more than $50,000 worth of lottery tickets — and then booked into jail on his birthday — according to police.
Cosme D. Calderon worked at the Shell gas station at 2230 W. 68th St. and was caught on surveillance footage stealing a bag of lottery ticket books from the convenience store’s storage room, an arrest report states.
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Police said Calderon was caught on camera 18 different times scanning tickets at the register over a two-month period while another employee used the bathroom.
The gas station owner said Calderon was never supposed to have access to lottery tickets and was only supposed to “clean the business and work the register as needed.”
Police said the thefts totaled $53,700. The report doesn’t state whether any of the tickets were significant winners — or whether he cashed any in.
Calderon, who also resides in Hialeah, was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Tuesday, the day he turned 44. He was given a $90,000 bond on 18 counts of grand theft.
However, the Salvadoran national remained jailed in TGK on an immigration hold, jail records showed Wednesday.