Police: Somerset County Sheetz worker steals $17,100 in lottery tickets

A Meyersdale woman faces felony charges, accused of stealing $17,100 in lottery tickets from the Sheetz store where she worked, authorities said.

Meyersdale police charged Cheryl Lynne Delawder, 37, of the 100 block of High Street, with retail theft, receiving stolen property, theft by unlawful taking and organized retail theft.

According to a criminal complaint, police said Delawder was employed at Sheetz on Center Street, in Meyersdale, for seven years. A Sheetz loss prevention officer alleged that Delawder stole the lottery tickets from November until January.

A surveillance video reportedly shows Delawder going to the lottery machine several times loading and unloading tickets.

Delawder reportedly told police that she would take packs of lottery tickets from Sheetz on the nights she was scheduled to do checkouts.

She said she would take extra packs of tickets to activate at the register and would only place some of the tickets back into the machine and keep the rest. Delawder reportedly said she would take the tickets home, scratch them off and return the winning tickets to Sheetz stores in Meyersdale and Somerset. She would cash some winning tickets at Giant Eagle and Walmart stores in Somerset, the complaint said.

Delawder said she cashed in about $3,000 in winning tickets, the complaint said.

Delawder was arraigned Tuesday by on-call District Judge Kenneth Johnson, of Somerset, and released on $20,000 unsecured bond.