An Arizona convenience store employee is at the center of a legal battle over a $12.8 million lottery jackpot after allegedly purchasing a winning ticket that had been left behind by a customer.
According to a complaint filed Tuesday in Maricopa County Superior Court and cited by 12News, Robert Gawlitza, a manager at a Circle K store in Scottsdale, was working on Nov. 24 when a customer asked to replay numbers for “The Pick” drawing that evening.
The complaint alleges that a store employee printed $85 worth of $1 tickets, but the customer paid for only $60, leaving 25 tickets — worth $25 — on the counter. The tickets remained at the store overnight and into the next morning, untouched.
After learning that his store had sold the jackpot-winning ticket, Gawlitza allegedly scanned the abandoned tickets and identified the winner. The winning numbers were 3, 13, 14, 15, 19 and 26.
According to court filings cited by local media, Gawlitza then clocked out of his shift, removed his Circle K uniform shirt and purchased the remaining tickets — including the winning one — from another employee for $10.
Circle K management was notified of the purchase and ordered that the ticket be secured at its corporate office pending a court decision on ownership of the prize.
In its complaint against Gawlitza and the Arizona Lottery, Circle K cited the Arizona Administrative Code, which states that retailers may hold property claims to lottery tickets that a customer refuses to pay for and that go unsold. The company did not explicitly claim ownership of the jackpot but asked the court to determine the rightful owner amid competing claims.
The $12.8 million prize is the fourth-largest “The Pick” jackpot sold in Arizona and the biggest since 2019. The winner has 180 days from the drawing date — until May 23 — to claim the prize.
