A 30-year-old man is behind bars at the Coffee County Jail following an investigation which determined the suspect influenced the winnings of the Georgia Lottery by tampering with scratch off tickets.
Sheriff’s investigators began looking into a complaint initiated by the manager of the store, who believed the employee was stealing lottery tickets in late September. Following a month-long investigation, which included interviews of the clerk and observations of video, detectives determined the clerk was scratching certain information on the tickets and then using the lottery machine and this information to determine if it was a winning ticket.
If the ticket was a winning ticket, the employee would take the money from the register and place it in his pocket, authorities say. If the ticket was a not a winner, it would be placed back in the holder and sold to an unsuspecting customer.
As a result of this investigation Allen Wayne Morgan of Douglas was arrested and charged with knowingly and willfully influencing the winning of a prize through coercion.
Morgan faces additional charges as investigators continue to sort through the case.