Waynesburg woman charged in lottery thefts
A Waynesburg woman has been charged with the theft of $25,021 from a lottery machine at BFS Foods Inc. in Franklin Township.
State police arrested Kathryn Elaine Phillips, 37, of 103 Thompson Gardens, March 7 for theft by unlawful taking and theft by deception. Police said an internal audit investigation was conducted at the store where Phillips was employed as the assistant manager when sales and deposits for the instant ticket lottery machine there did not match.
Karen Gross, regional manager for BFS Foods, told police she found the discrepancies in the ticket sales and deposits for the months of August through October. Gross met with a representative of the Pennsylvania Lottery who confirmed the monthly reports of sales from the machine were accurate.
Gross told police Phillips admitted taking $700 on one occasion and $120 on another occasion from the machine. According to an affidavit, Phillips later told police she didn’t know the exact amount of money she stole from the machine but knew she had done it more than 10 times. Police said she denied taking any money from the machine in August.
Phillips was released on $15,000 unsecured bond. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Thursday before District Judge Glenn Bates.