Thai woman caught stealing lottery tickets worth 90 million baht

A lottery seller in the Isaan province of Loei demanded a Thai woman return his lottery tickets after security camera footage showed her colluding with a young girl to steal the tickets for her.

The lottery vendor, Aungkul Phaichantuek, told Channel 7 that he lost a set of 15 tickets with the same number, 754727, on Saturday, July 27. He lost them while operating his shop at Ton Tarn Market on the Friendship Highway in Mueang Khon Kaen district of Khon Kaen province.

Aungkul explained that, due to the rain that day, he hurried to close his shop and packed up the lottery tickets to prevent them from getting wet. Believing he had misplaced them, he reviewed the CCTV footage to check for any unusual activity.

The footage revealed a woman, estimated to be between 60 and 70 years old, instructing a young girl in a light blue shirt to pick up the lottery tickets from the ground on her behalf. Aungkul is convinced that the woman must have taken his tickets and has urged her to return them to avoid legal repercussions.

He revealed that he had sold the lottery set for 4,000 baht, which could potentially yield 90 million baht if it won the first prize. Aungkul expressed his distress over the loss, noting that the number was currently very popular and he had been searching for it for a long time.

Aungkul has requested that the woman return the tickets to him at the same market, where he is present every day from morning until 5pm. He emphasised that he did not wish for this situation to become as complicated as a previous lottery dispute involving a Thai police officer named Jaroon and a teacher named Preecha.

The lottery seller added that he received a tip from a netizen after sharing the story on social media. The netizen told him that the woman and the young girl in the footage went to make merit at Thung Setthi Temple, which is located about 12 kilometres away from the market, on Monday, July 29.

Aungkul said this proved that this woman and the girl were in the Khon Kaen area and might have taken his tickets with them. He emphasised that the woman could not claim the money even if she won the prize because he had already filed a complaint with the police and the tickets were frozen.