Charges filed in theft of lottery tickets

Saturday, May 06, 2006 posted 03:29 AM EDT

A clerk has been charged with stealing more than $20,000 worth of lottery tickets from the Village Store in Hartford.

Aimee L. Rushton, 32, of Hartford, worked at the store for more than two years.

On Thursday, Madison County State's Attorney Bill Mudge charged her with theft over $10,000. According to the charge, Rushton took Illinois State lottery tickets worth more than $10,000 but less than $100,000. She is alleged to have taken them between Jan. 1 and May 1. The store's owner, Robert Dannenburg, told investigators that he recently discovered that the money was missing from the Illinois State Lottery Tickets ledger. An internal audit determined that Rushton was allegedly responsible.

On Tuesday, Madison County Sheriff's deputies arrested Rushton at the store and held her at the Madison County Jail while charges were sought. On Thursday, Circuit Judge Edward Ferguson set Rushton's bail at $150,000. She remains in custody.

Rushton's only previous brush with the law in Madison County was a misdemeanor charge in 2002, when she was arrested for deceptive practices. Prosecutors alleged that she wrote a $108 bad check to the Wal-Mart store in Wood River.

The Village Store, at the corner of Hawthorne and Delmar, in downtown Hartford, sells doughnuts, snacks, cold drinks, and other items. Two years ago, Hartford police charged a father and son from South Roxana with theft for allegedly trying to pay for merchandise at the store with "dime" rolls that actually contained only pennies.

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