ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 24, 1996 TAG: 9608260063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WINDSOR
Convenience store employees broke no laws when they threw out 950 redeemed winning instant lottery tickets, even though the tickets all could have been redeemed again.
``There was nothing criminally involved,'' said Paula Otto, lottery spokeswoman. She declined Friday to name the store.
A resident, whom authorities have declined to identify, notified the Isle of Wight Sheriff's Office early Tuesday morning of finding a bag of lottery tickets in a trash bin near a Windsor convenience store.
The tickets, worth more than $1,000, had been tossed into the trash by a store employee without first voiding them in some way to prevent them from being redeemed again, Otto said.
``We advise retailers that they should tear the ticket, punch a hole in it, mark an X or something to invalidate it,'' she said.
After the first of the year, all tickets will have a bar code on them so that each ticket can be instantly verified and immediately recorded, Otto said.
- Associated Press
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