2nd nighttime break-in nets more lottery tickets

LACONIA — For the second time in just under 24 hours a burglar broke into a convenience store in the city and stole hundreds of dollars worth of lottery scratch tickets.

The latest break-in occurred at the Budget Gas store at 280 Court St.

The burglar gained entry to the store by smashing the glass on a side door to the building in the predawn hours Thursday morning.

About $2,000 worth of scratch tickets were taken, according to Laconia Police Chief Matt Canfield. The store’s manager said it appeared nothing else was stolen.

Police were notified of the break-in at 5:21 a.m. Shah Mamood, the manager, said police estimated the burglar broke in between 3:30 and 3:45 a.m.

Dispensers holding 10 different scratch ticket games were cleaned out.

“They didn’t touch anything else,” Mamood said.

Police are analyzing surveillance video from the store which shows a person, dressed mostly in white, stuffing what appears to be lottery tickets into a bag.

A virtually identical burglary occurred around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday when someone smashed the glass front door of the Kwik Stop store at 1255 Union Ave., and stole about $1,300 worth of scratch tickets, Canfield said.

On Thursday, the Police Department K9 team again was used, hoping the animal might lead officers to a suspect. However, as of mid-afternoon Thursday police had made no arrests in connection with either break-in.

Security systems are designed to prevent stolen lottery tickets from being redeemed.

“The businesses and the Lottery (Commission) identify the missing tickets and flag them so they cannot be validated,” commission spokesperson Maura McCann said. “Lottery products are very secure and very trackable.”

She said anyone trying to cash a stolen ticket would be arrested.