A Milford, Massachusetts man accused of stealing $86,000 in scratch tickets from the Cochituate Road service station he worked at claimed yesterday he was being framed.
Mohammad Tahir said a handwritten confession attributed to him was forged, and he was never shown a videotape that Exxon-Mobil security said they had of him stealing the books of lottery tickets over a several-month period.
"I think someone is trying to cover up something," said Tahir, 39, of 11 Luby Ave. "I will get to the bottom of this, who took the $86,000 (in scratch tickets) and blamed me."
Tahir appeared in Framingham District Court for a hearing yesterday, only to find out he was indicted by a Middlesex County grand jury on Tuesday.
He is charged with larceny of property of more than $250, larceny from a building, breaking into a depository and making false entry in corporate books.
Tahir is accused of stealing the $86,000 in lottery tickets from January to August of this year.
Exxon-Mobil security told Framingham police that Tahir would slip a book of scratch tickets into his pants, and then bring them out to his car. His wife would then switch cars and take the tickets home.
The couple turned in $45,000 worth of winners, according to court records.
Exxon-Mobil told police they had a videotape of Tahir stealing the tickets, and a written confession that they say Tahir admits to stealing the tickets to get revenge against the Massachusetts Lottery Commission due to a past conflict, which resulted in Tahir losing his Holliston convenience store.
Tahir said he never wrote a confession or signed anything.
He said he was interviewed by Exxon-Mobil security about the lottery commission.
"I am still angry at them -- I lost my business," said Tahir. "That $86,000 is pretty serious money. How could I have stolen it? I didn't even have access to it."
A spokesman for Exxon-Mobil could not be reached yesterday for comment.
Tahir is scheduled to be arraigned in Middlesex County Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 4.
"I'm here to fight this," said Tahir. "If they have the evidence, show it to me."
$86,000-1k for each year between Red Sox wins?
he is accused of stealing 10,750 a month or at an average of $500 a book thats 21.5 books a month...if he worked 40 hrs a week...thats about 1 book a day he would have been stealing...I'm just wondering why it got so far into the year before anybody did anything....45,000 in winners is about a 52% return on your investment,,,in the case of theft its 45,000 in "walking around money"!
I agree with fja - how did this go on for this long???
why doesn't he just agree to a lie detector test. they've been proven to be wrong only 0.1% of the time. they're almost completely accurate.
there's only one way to find out.
Flip a coin?