Roommate accused of stealing winning $10M lottery ticket

VACAVILLE, Calif. — A man in California is behind bars for reportedly stealing a winning lottery ticket from his roommate. Police say the suspect snatched the scratcher worth $10 million.

"He thought he might have a chance of getting away with it," Lt. Chris Polen of the Vacaville police told KTXL.

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It all began at a super market just before Christmas. A man bought a lottery scratch-off ticket, then went home and told his roommates he won $10,000. But when he went to get his money, he was told the ticket wasn't legit.

"We had a discussion with him because he said 'No, I won. I saw I won $10,000 in this game' and he kinda of told me some stuff," said Russ Lopez of the California Lottery.

Turns out, according to Vacaville police, that the man's ticket wasn't his ticket. The next day the real ticket surfaced, when his roommate tried to turn in the winner.

That's also when the roommate and suspect learned the scratcher wasn't a $10,000 winner, it was a $10 million winner.

"One of his roommates goes to the same store, purchases the same ticket, later alters his losing ticket to match the winning ticket," said Polen.

After both Vacaville police and the lottery caught on, the suspect was invited to collect his winnings. That's where he was arrested.

The suspect, identified as Adul Saosongyang, was booked on suspicion of grand theft.

CNN/KTXL