Arizona worker wins $12.8M with discarded lottery ticket from his company. Now he’s being sued

A $12.8 million Arizona Lottery jackpot has turned into a legal battle involving a convenience store manager, his employer, and questions about ownership and chain of custody.

The unusual dispute centers on Robert Gawlitza, a manager at a Circle K in Scottsdale, Arizona, who purchased a discarded lottery ticket that later was determined to be a massive winner, and now the company that employs him has asked a court to decide who is entitled to the prize.

What happened to Robert Gawlitza?

According to AZFamily, the incident began on the evening of November 24, 2025, when a customer visited the Circle K at Southeast 56th Street and Bell Road to play “The Pick,” an Arizona Lottery draw game. According to legal filings, the store clerk mistakenly printed 85 tickets at $1 each. However, the customer only paid for $60 worth of them, leaving 25 tickets, worth $25 total, on the counter.

Those leftover tickets sat unclaimed overnight in the store. Later that night, one of them matched all six winning numbers, resulting in a jackpot worth $12.8 million, one of the largest “The Pick” prizes in Arizona history, and the biggest since 2019.

When Gawlitza arrived for his shift the next morning, he allegedly learned that a winning ticket had been printed at his store but not sold. According to the complaint, he located the remaining tickets — including the jackpot winner — and clocked out of his shift, removed his Circle K uniform, and bought the bundle from a coworker for $10. He then signed the back of the ticket.

That act has become central to the legal controversy: Did Gawlitza obtain the ticket legitimately, or did he improperly acquire a winning ticket that belonged to someone else — the original customer or the store?

Chain of custody and legal issues

The lawsuit filed by Circle K in Maricopa County Superior Court does not claim the prize money for the company. Instead, Circle K is asking a judge to determine who legally owns the ticket and who is entitled to claim the winnings — Gawlitza, the original purchaser, the store under state rules, or potentially no one at all.

A key legal point is the “chain of custody,” or the documented history of the ticket from printing through sale, abandonment, and eventual possession. Chain of custody is crucial in disputes over lost, found, or abandoned property because courts look at how and why an item changed hands.

In Arizona, the Administrative Code cited by Circle K suggests that tickets printed but refused by a customer and left unsold may be treated as property of the retailer.

However, for property to be legally considered abandoned, the owner must intend to relinquish it, not merely leave it behind by accident. Circle K has asked the court to determine whether the customer truly abandoned the tickets—which could bolster the company’s or Gawlitza’s claim—or if they were simply forgotten, in which case another party’s claim might still be valid.

The clock is ticking

As of February 2026, the ticket remains physically held at Circle K’s corporate offices pending a judicial decision. The lawsuit names Gawlitza and the Arizona Lottery as defendants, and the Arizona Lottery has acknowledged it is unaware of any similar prior litigation.

The winner — whether the original purchaser or another party — must claim the prize by May 23, 2026, which is 180 days from the drawing date under state rules. Otherwise, unclaimed jackpots can revert to state lottery funds.