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A store clerk and colleague are accused of stealing a $3m (£2.4m) lottery ticket left behind by a customer.

State lottery officials in Massachusetts contacted police after Carly Nunes, 23, presented a ticket that was torn and burned.

Ms Nunes and colleague Joseph Reddem, 32, were also overheard arguing over their claims to the winning jackpot.

The original buyer of the ticket has been identified and will claim his prize as intended.

Plymouth County prosecutors said the man had purchased four tickets as well as a bag of potato chips from the Savas Liquors store in Lakeville on 17 January.

Ms Nunes, the clerk at the checkout counter, rang up the order but only printed two tickets, and the man left the store without his winning tickets.

That evening, his numbers were called, but the man concluded he had lost the tickets after a brief search.

Two days later, Mr Reddem drove Ms Nunes and her boyfriend to the state lottery headquarters, where she submitted her claim and redeemed the prize.

But shortly thereafter, according to prosecutors, officials overheard Mr Reddem demanding a share of the jackpot from Ms Nunes in the building's lobby. She allegedly said she would "only pay him $200,000".

Lottery investigators also questioned Ms Nunes over the poor condition her ticket was in, and opened an investigation.

Surveillance video from Savas Liquors soon revealed how Ms Nunes had obtained the ticket and, in a follow-up interview, she told police she had "inadvertently obtained" the ticket, prosecutors said.

A grand jury indicted Ms Nunes last Friday on one count each of larceny from a building, attempted larceny, presentation of a false claim and witness intimidation, and Mr Reddem on one count of attempted extortion. They will be arraigned at a later date.

Police spent nearly a month working to find the true owner of the winning ticket, canvassing the area, posting flyers of the man seen in surveillance footage and questioning local residents.

The Massachusetts State Lottery Commission has said it will honour his claim to the $3m jackpot.