The Texas-based gas station chain Circle K sued a Scottsdale store manager and the Arizona Lottery after the employee purchased a winning lottery ticket worth nearly $13 million.
The question of outright ownership occurred because the now-former manager, Robert Gawlitza, hadn’t originally intended to purchase the ticket. Another customer had initiated the process but failed to pay for the ticket and left it behind.
Last November, a customer left behind 25 of the 85 lottery tickets she requested after realizing she didn’t have enough funds to purchase all of the 85 she’d requested.
In accordance with store policy, the 25 tickets were set aside and not sold. The next day, former store manager Gawlitza purchased those unclaimed tickets after allegedly discovering one of those unclaimed tickets was the $12.8 million winning ticket.
Gawlitza’s attorney, Josh Kolsrud, told ABC15 that employees were required to purchase any printed but unsold tickets valued at over $20 to avoid write-ups, per Circle K’s unwritten policy.
“[I]f you accidentally print them out and they go unsold, it’s the industry practice for the person who prints them out to be responsible to pay for them. If not the person, then the store manager,” said Kolsrud.
Gawlitza purportedly promised to split any winnings with the sales clerk who had printed the tickets.
Gawlitza’s claim to the win was short-lived. Circle K confiscated the ticket and has challenged the legality of Gawlitza’s purchase. They claim the winnings belong to them.
Circle K claims the Arizona Administrative Code supports their challenge, which states that overprinted tickets are owned by the retailer under certain conditions.
“All draw game ticket sales are final. If a retailer accepts a returned draw game ticket from a player or generates a draw game ticket refused by the player and the retailer does not resell the ticket, the Lottery shall deem the draw game ticket to be owned by the retailer,” states the law.
In January, the company fired Gawlitza. He had worked for Circle K for 20 years.
In February, Circle K filed its lawsuit asking the Maricopa County Superior Court to determine the rightful ownership of the ticket and its winnings. Gawlitza has countersued.
The Arizona Lottery is maintaining the funds in an interest-bearing account pending the court ruling.
“This is a unique situation and we are not aware of any prior litigation of this sort involving the Arizona Lottery,” said an Arizona Lottery statement. “The [Arizona Lottery] is a nominal party to the lawsuit; there are no allegations of wrongdoing for The Arizona Lottery. The Arizona Lottery is only party to the lawsuit for the purpose of binding the AZL to any court order issued as a result of the suit.”
A Circle K spokesperson told KTAR that their lawsuit wasn’t against Gawlitza or anyone else in particular, but instead focused on determining lawful ownership of the ticket.
“Circle K is committed to doing the right thing and maintaining a strong, transparent partnership with the Arizona Lottery. That commitment is precisely why we have asked the court how best to proceed under these unique circumstances,” said the spokesperson. “It is not accurate to characterize this as a lawsuit against any specific party.”.
Gawlitza told Fox10 that the company’s decisions to fire and sue him have harmed his family’s reputation.
“It really broke my heart. My father’s name is tarnished. That’s how I felt. Really, it hurt me,” said Gawlitza. “[My parents] raised me, you know, [as a] hard-working person and now that’s what I tried to do that day and unfortunately that’s not how I’m being portrayed and that’s what my main focus is.”
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Kreamer is hearing the case.
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