Burglars steal Lotto scratchers from liquor store, try to take the ATM too

Police in Garden Grove are looking for at least three men who used a minivan and some rope to try to steal an ATM from a liquor store and made off with thousands of California Lotto scratchers.

Police said a white minivan backed into the Shop & Go liquor store parking lot just before 3 a.m. Tuesday. A man walked to the front door, pried it open and stole reams of scratchers while another grabbed rope from inside the car and tied it to the shop’s ATM.

Then, authorities said, the men hopped back into the van as the driver tried to pull the ATM from the store. He tried three times before the rope snapped. The suspects made off with the Lotto tickets, but failed to steal the ATM, police said.

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Garden Grove police responding to the scene discovered the front doors had been ripped off and the shop had been damaged.

Surveillance footage of the burglary shows the suspects also had a bit of trouble stealing the scratchers, Garden Grove police Lt. Bob Bogue said.

“When he’s running out of the store, one of the rolls is unrolling. He’s got 10 feet of Lotto scratchers dragging behind him,” Bogue said of one of the suspects. “When he jumps into the van, the lotto tickets are hanging out of the back.”

The theft marks the second such burglary in one week, Bogue said.

On May 17, a maroon Chevrolet Astro van backed up to Hanshaw Liquor, where three male suspects tied a rope to the front doors and the van.

The driver pulled the van forward, ripping the doors off and allowing the two other men to get in and steal thousands of Lotto scratchers, Bogue said.

“The common denominator is taking lottery scratchers,” he said. “It does seem like it’s connected.”

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Some of the scratchers stolen in that burglary were claimed just hours later in Compton and Lynwood. Burglars try to cash them before state lottery officials can find the tickets.

Russ Lopez, deputy director of corporate communications at the California Lotto, said thieves think they can get away with stealing Lotto tickets clean and free, but “most of them are in for a big surprise.” The organization works with local law enforcement agencies as soon as it’s notified that a retailer was burgled, he said.

“We can track tickets,” Lopez said. “We know our products and we know how to find our products.”

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