What should have been a life-changing moment in Arizona has instead turned into a full-blown legal standoff. A $12.8 million lottery jackpot is now sitting in limbo, tied up in a dispute that feels more like a courtroom drama than a feel-good winning story.
At the center of it all is Robert Gawlitza, a manager at a Circle K in Scottsdale, Arizona. The situation began on November 24, 2025, when a customer stopped by the store at Southeast 56th Street and Bell Road to play “The Pick,” a draw game run by the Arizona Lottery. According to legal filings, a clerk accidentally printed 85 tickets at $1 each. The customer, however, only paid for $60 worth. That left 25 tickets sitting on the counter, per Yahoo.
Those tickets reportedly remained there overnight. Here’s where it gets wild. One of those unsold tickets matched all six numbers, making it the jackpot winner. The prize? A jaw-dropping $12.8 million, one of the biggest “The Pick” payouts in Arizona in years, and the largest since 2019.
Arizona Gas Station Employee Buys Abandoned Winning Lottery Ticket
When Gawlitza came in for his shift the next morning, he allegedly learned that a winning ticket had been printed at his store but never purchased. According to the complaint, he found the remaining tickets, clocked out, removed his Circle K uniform, and bought the bundle from a coworker for $10. He then signed the back of the jackpot ticket.
And just like that, what could have been a celebratory press conference turned into a lawsuit. Circle K filed a complaint in Maricopa County Superior Court not to claim the money for itself, interestingly, but to ask a judge to determine who actually owns the ticket. Is it Gawlitza? The original customer? The store under state administrative rules? Or potentially no one at all?
The heart of the dispute revolves around something called “chain of custody.” In legal terms, that means documenting exactly how an item changes hands. In cases involving lost, abandoned, or disputed property, that paper trail can make or break ownership claims.
Arizona’s Administrative Code reportedly suggests that tickets printed but refused by a customer and left unsold may be treated as property of the retailer. But here’s the catch: for something to be legally abandoned, the original owner must intend to give it up. Accidentally leaving something behind isn’t necessarily the same as abandoning it.
He Bought The Ticket After Learning Of The Winning Numbers
So the big question becomes: did the customer knowingly walk away from those 25 tickets? Or were they simply forgotten in the confusion of a printing mistake?
As of February 2026, the winning ticket is being held at Circle K’s corporate offices while the courts sort this out. The lawsuit names both Gawlitza and the Arizona Lottery as defendants. The Lottery has acknowledged it isn’t aware of similar litigation in the past, which makes this case even more unusual.
There’s also a ticking clock. Under Arizona rules, the winner must claim the prize by May 23, 2026, 180 days from the drawing date. If no one successfully claims it by then, the jackpot could revert back to state lottery funds.
It’s the kind of story that makes you double-check every ticket you’ve ever tossed aside. A $10 purchase could potentially turn into generational wealth or a drawn-out legal nightmare. One person online called the employee “devious and brilliant” for his attempt to make himself a very rich man.
Time Is Running Out
Culturally, lottery wins are often framed as instant fairy tales. Someone buys a ticket on a whim, checks their numbers, and suddenly they’re planning early retirement. But this situation is a reminder that when big money is involved, nothing is ever simple. Especially when questions of procedure, policy, and possession get involved.
For now, what should have been Arizona’s feel-good jackpot headline has transformed into a case study in property law. And until a judge decides who legally owns that little slip of paper, the $12.8 million prize remains suspended in uncertainty.
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