Was a Hilton Head man’s lottery scratch-off a winner? Only a thirsty, brazen thief knows

A Hilton Head Island man will never know whether he would have struck it rich from any of the three scratch-offs he bought earlier this week at a local convenience store.

The tickets — along with 25 ounces of Budweiser — were swiped right off the store’s counter early Tuesday morning by an unidentified thief before the man had a chance to scratch them, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.

The man told deputies he left the scratch-offs and the beer in a bag on the counter and went use the bathroom, according to the report.

When he returned, “his bag was missing from the counter, and (he) was informed by the cashier she had not moved it,” the report said.

The clerk told deputies she hadn’t seen anything suspicious and “was unable to review video footage of the incident,” according to the report.

This story was originally published July 28, 2017 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Was a Hilton Head man’s lottery scratch-off a winner? Only a thirsty, brazen thief knows."