A Phoenix man received a 260-year sentence for his seven-week convenience store robbery spree. What broke the case? A stolen scratch-off ticket.
For seven weeks between December 2015 through early February 2016, Anthony Wayne Hamilton robbed over 30 convenience stores at gunpoint in the Phoenix area.
What led to his arrest? Although the video footage from his robberies didn’t offer any clues to his identity, the footage from another visit did.
In one of the early robberies, he took some scratch-off lottery tickets and won. When he tried to cash in the winning ticket, the clerk refused the payout since the ticket had been recorded as stolen. During that c-store visit, his face was captured by video surveillance wearing the same clothes from his previous night’s c-store theft.
Images from the surveillance footage were circulated in bulletins and, one day, an off-duty officer recognized the robber at a fast-food restaurant. The car he was driving was put under surveillance and he was arrested while carrying out his 36th and final robbery.
His sentence was 260 years but what was the payoff? According to the FBI:
Hamilton made off with less than $10,000. “The average take per robbery was $200 to $300” […]
If you happen to be a c-store owner, make sure to learn what you need to do to manage your lottery inventory and to report any thefts. See our previous post for links to your state’s lottery commission.
Video Surveillance Footage
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