A Greeneville man thought he had literally hit the lottery by stealing several books of tickets from an unauthorized area of a Church Hill convenience store, police said.
It turns out that Brian Dean Smith, 27, collection of Tennessee Lottery scratch tickets had not been activated and according to Police Chief Mark Johnson, the entire theft was captured on in-store surveillance video cameras inside Minor's Market on South Central Avenue.
Smith was reportedly in that area working with a tree maintenance operation when he took the tickets on Monday, said Johnson who valued the tickets at $900.
The theft was reported by the store Wednesday afternoon and Smith was arrested and charged later that day with burglary and theft under $1,000, the report said.
Smith had also tried to cash in some of the stolen tickets, police said, and made "multiple incriminating statements."
