A Bluffton woman is accused of stealing lottery tickets from her store and cashing them for $270

A Bluffton woman is accused of stealing lottery tickets from the Hilton Head Island store where she worked and cashing them in at a supermarket down the road.

Rosa Calderon Vega, 37, was arrested on July 30 and charged with intent to defraud, counterfeit game tickets, and attempt to influence a game by coercion, tampering or deception. She has not been convicted, and the charges are allegations.

According to arrest warrants, Vega allegedly passed six stolen South Carolina Education Lottery (SLED) scratch-offs at the Food Lion on Fording Island Road in Bluffton on February 22 and received $270 in cash. SLED says the tickets came from the Circle K on Palmetto Bay Road on Hilton Head Island, where she was employed at the time, and that store management identified her, with the incident recorded on surveillance video.

The South Carolina Education Lottery requested the investigation. Vega was booked into the Beaufort County Detention Center, and the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office is prosecuting.

It is one of several South Carolina lottery fraud cases this year, after a clerk accused of cashing a ticket from a social media photo, two former store employees charged in a theft scheme and a woman charged with cashing stolen scratch-offs. Every ticket in a stolen batch is logged, so passing them at a retail terminal leaves a record of exactly where and when they're cashed.

Sources

WTOC: SLED charges Beaufort County woman with lottery fraud

WSAV: SLED charges Beaufort woman with lottery fraud