WATERBURY, Vt. -
A convenience store clerk is accused of stealing more than 25-thousand dollars worth of lottery tickets, and cashing in on the winnings.
Police say, for at least a year, the Vermont woman pocketed full books of lottery tickets from the Crossroads Beverage Store in Waterbury, where she worked.
We first told you about this crime in September. Well today, the store clerk and her boyfriend - who police say was also involved - made their first appearance in court.
"I do not want to talk to you," Ami Lamell shouted at me in a courthouse hallway.
The 33 year old was not happy to see cameras in a Barre courtroom Thursday. She sat with a piece of paper covering her face until she approached the judge and pleaded not guilty to stealing thousands of dollars worth of lottery tickets from where she worked, the Crossroads in Waterbury.
"It could potentially be very damaging because we have no backup system, she wiped us out, she completely wiped us out," Crossroads store manager, Jeremy Allaire said.
I told Lamell, "I was talking to the owner of crossroads today." She replied, "yea, I could care less about them, he could have come to me and said something to me, instead no, he has to do all of this stupid shit."
"You don't think that anybody would do this to you," Allaire said.
When the store owner noticed the lottery account was dropping drastically, he became suspicious and set up video cameras in plain sight and says he was still able to catch his employee red handed.
"She would hide the books and come back later," Allaire said.
Lamell confessed to police that she'd been stealing tickets, and when she had the winning numbers she bought clothes for her two kids, and kept her car from being repossessed. She then told police that her 27 year old boyfriend Eric Luman was using his winning tickets to support his drug addiction. He too pleaded not guilty.
If convicted, Ami Lamell could spend ten years in prison. Eric Luman is facing three.
The two told police their largest winning ticket was $50.
