Store clerk given 5 years for stealing Lotto ticket
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

Liquor store clerk Sam Grair was found guilty of felony grand theft and for presenting a fraudulent claim to a government agency after he tried to steal a $530,858 Lottery ticket from a customer at the Camarillo store where he worked, the Ventura County District Attorney's office announced on Monday.

Grair, 43, who pleaded guilty to his charges in late September, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison. He also was ordered to pay $2,344- money lost in interest-to the winning ticket's owner, Camarillo resident Bob Sehested.

Sehested said he bought the ticket on his birthday-Feb. 14- at Crossroads Market and Liquor in Camarillo and returned the next day to find out if the ticket was a winner. According to authorities, Grair scanned the winning ticket, paid Sehested $4 for it and then tried to cash the winning ticket a few weeks later.

According to Lottery officials, the search for the ticket's true owner began when Grair was unable to successfully answer questions asked during a standard verification interview.

Norma Minas, a Lottery spokeswoman, said all claims of $600 or more must be made at the Lottery's district office. The district office that serves Ventura County is in Van Nuys.

When Grair couldn't answer the questions correctly, detectives posted to the Lottery's website a few minutes of footage taken from the store's security camera, showing Sehested and his wife buying the ticket.

Detectives hoped the video would help them find the ticket's true owner.

Sehested said he was shocked when he came across the footage while surfing the Internet. He called Lottery officials to tell them he had purchased the $500,000 ticket, and an investigation was soon underway to verify Sehested's claim.

In early April, Sehested was awarded the money and authorities began the investigation into Grair's false claim.

Sehested said he was glad to hear of the prison sentence, but added he still shops at the liquor store, which is owned by Grair's uncle, Mike Grair.

"Mike, the owner, is an honorable man," Sehested said. "Mike spent hours going through videotapes to find me. He could have destroyed the tapes, erased the tapes, anything that he wanted, but he didn't. He's an honorable man, and I shop there."

Sehested said his winnings, which he calls a "security blanket," are still in the bank.

He said the experience has taught him how important it is to sign a lottery ticket after he's bought it.

"Sign your ticket as soon as you buy it. Because even if you drop it on the floor after you walk out of the place, the only thing that anyone can do with it is find you or turn it into (the) Lottery so they can find you and hope they get a reward for it because they're not going to be able to cash it in," Sehested said.