Police say a thief who got away with a safe full of lottery tickets after breaking into a local Git n Go, left another safe full of money behind.
Problem for the thief is, when he tries to cash in the stolen lottery tickets, they'll trigger an alarm, immediately.
"It's really a silly thing to steal lottery tickets from a retail location." Says Mary Neubauer with the Iowa Lottery. "They are so trackable. Those identifying numbers on the tickets are useful for police."
She says the tickets all have serial numbers, and they can be used to quickly trace the thief when they try to cash in.
"Notices pop up on our lottery system to track the tickets marked as stolen, so there've been cases where police were able to arrest thieves while they were still in the store." Neubauer says.
The robbery was reported at 5:30 Sunday morning when an employee arrived to open the Git n Go at 4900 Urbandale Avenue in Des Moines.
According to the police report, the thief left a cash safe behind.