MILWAUKEE -- The owners of a Milwaukee south side gas station are frustrated after someone forcefully stole $500 worth of lottery tickets Tuesday evening.
Belal Barakat, owner of Skyline Petroleum at 13th & Grange, said the suspect wandered into his store at 6:50 p.m.
Surveillance footage captures him glancing at a cashier to his left before grabbing a large, plastic container of scratch off lottery tickets and yanking it off of the counter.
"That box was mounted to the counter with like six screws," Barakat said. "He literally tilted the whole thing down and broke off a piece of the top."
Video shows the suspect eventually ripping off about $500 worth of scratch off tickets and dashing out the door.
Another camera, outside of the gas station, caught the man getting into the passenger seat of a waiting, black GMC SUV.
The driver immediately pulls out of the store's parking lot.
Barakat said the lottery tickets have already been deactivated. But he had to pay for them up front before selling them.
"Those tickets right now, they're cancelled. There's no use to them," Barakat said. "So he pretty much just ended up costing me money for no reason."
He hopes getting the suspect's face out to the public will prevent another crime like this in the future.
"This time, he literally took just pieces of paper," Barakat said. "I don't want him to hurt someone next time."
