DES MOINES, Iowa—A Madrid woman faces five theft charges stemming from the theft of lottery tickets at a local convenience store according to state investigators. In a statement released Wednesday, the state released additional information:

On January 14, Taylor Wiese of Madrid was charged in Boone County District Court with four counts of Theft of a Lottery Ticket – 99G.36(1), Class D felonies, and one count of Theft in the Second Degree – 714.2(2), also a Class D felony.

According to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, on September 7, 2018, representatives from the Iowa Lottery conducted a routine audit of an Iowa Lottery pull-tab machine at the Git-N-Go store at 501 E. Second Street in Madrid. The audit revealed that $3,535.25 worth of pull-tab tickets were missing from the machine. The Madrid Police Department began to investigate the missing tickets and requested the assistance of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Taylor Kathryn Wiese of Madrid, a former employee of Git-N-Go, was identified as a suspect in the theft.

On November 28, 2018, the Madrid Police Department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation interviewed Wiese. Wiese admitted to stealing a large number of pull-tab tickets during her employment with Git-N-Go.

This was a joint investigation by the Madrid Police Department, the Division of Criminal Investigation, the Iowa Lottery, and the Boone County Attorney’s Office.

(contributed article)