A 35-year-old Waco woman has been arrested after police and lottery officials tracked stolen lottery tickets.

Police had been called September 17 when it was suspected that an employee of the Cefco Store at 1620 South 18th had taken a total of 13 fifty-dollar Ultimate Lottery scratch off tickets.

Police were given video of the theft with the store’s loss listed as $650.

The detective working the case contacted the Texas Lottery Commission and learned that four of the thirteen stolen ticket had been cashed at different convenience stores in Waco and Bellmead.

Since investigators had the sequence numbers of the stolen tickets, it was a simple matter for the Lottery Commission to provide a list of the ticket, time, date and payout amount for each ticket.

The detective could then simply visit each store that made a payout and get the video that is made whenever a lottery ticket is redeemed.

Police were then able to get an arrest warrant for Wyneishea Lagail Dawson who was then arrested and booked into the McLennan County Jail.

Wyneishea Dawson

An additional theft charge was filed against Dawson as police investigated the theft of money from a purse of another employee of the same store that occurred the day before the lottery tickets were taken. 

The victim reported she was missing the cash from her purse, with police being able to determine the identity of a suspect from surveillance video showing her going through the victim’s purse..