Circle K worker bought customer's abandoned lottery ticket after clocking out; it won $12.8 million, now a judge has allowed a legal fight

A customer walked into a convenience store in Arizona to buy lottery tickets, ran short of cash and left some of them behind. By the next morning, one of those unpaid tickets had become a multimillion-dollar mystery.

A store manager who discovered that it matched all six winning numbers decided to buy it himself after clocking out, removing his uniform and paying $10. The ticket was worth nearly $12.8 million.

But instead of collecting a fortune, the employee found himself in a legal battle with his former employer, Circle K, over who actually owned the winning slip. Now, nearly a year after the drawing, a judge has allowed the dispute to move forward, according to a report by NBC Palm Springs, although the question of who gets the money remains unanswered.The case centres on Robert Gawlitza, a former manager at a Circle K convenience store near 56th Street and Bell Road in Scottsdale, Arizona.