Lottery ticket thief handed six-month sentence
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A Prince Albert man was sentenced to six months in jail this morning for stealing lottery tickets in what the prosecutor referred to as “blatant, flagrant” thefts.
Jason Romeo Stefanski pleaded guilty to stealing lottery tickets from local businesses on three separate occasions, two of which were only a day apart. Crown Prosecutor Gail Douglas said Stefanski’s thefts followed a clear pattern in which he would distract a clerk and grab as many lottery tickets as he could while their back was turned.
In most cases Stefanski was recognized by police after reviewing security footage, but in one incident he was caught after a Good Samaritan customer intervened. Douglas said Stefanski grabbed $420 worth of tickets from a Co-op location July 27, but one of the customers in line noticed the theft and chased him down outside the store.
Defence lawyer Estelle Hjertaas said the thefts were motivated by poverty. Stefanski, she said, committed the thefts so he would have money to take his family to the fair and visit an ailing relative in Saskatoon. His record shows no violence, Hjertaas said, and she argued for a conditional sentence to give her client an opportunity to prove himself.
