An Italian seller steals a winning card of €500,000 from a customer
An Italian tobacco shop owner was arrested at Rome airport while he was about to travel to Spain after he stole a winning scratch card worth 500,000 euros, police said, according to Agence France-Presse.
The incident had been making headlines in Italy for several days after the man fled with the winning ticket belonging to a woman in her 70s who went to his store in Naples to make sure she won.
Investigators revealed that the merchant went to the city of Latina, between Naples and Rome, to deposit the ticket in a bank and receive the amount at a later time when things calm down.
He was stopped by border police at Rome airport with a ticket to the Canary Islands.
The Public Prosecution suspended his license and seized the winning card, without prosecuting the merchant or opening an investigation for theft under aggravating circumstances.