LAKEVILLE, Mass. (WPRI) — A woman and her boyfriend are facing charges after the couple stole a winning $3 million lottery ticket and attempted to cash it in earlier this year, according to U.S. District Attorney Timothy Cruz.

Carly Nunes, 23, of Lakeville, is accused of holding onto a customer’s lottery tickets back in January while working as a cashier at Savas Liquors. Cruz explained that the man left the store without the tickets, which he forgot in the lottery terminal tray.

Surveillance footage from inside the store captures the moment when another customer alerted Nunes to the tickets, which she took and placed behind the counter, according to Cruz.

That night, the numbers on one of the man’s Mass Millions tickets were selected for the $3 million prize. Knowing the numbers he played, Cruz said the man searched for his ticket to confirm, but gave up when he couldn’t find it.

The ticket didn’t turn up until a couple of days later, when Nunes and her boyfriend and coworker, 32-year-old Joseph Reddem, of Manchester, New Hampshire, reportedly tried to cash it in at the Massachusetts State Lottery headquarters.

Cruz said lottery employees were skeptical of the ticket because the edge appeared to be torn and burned. Nunes claimed that she had mistakenly tore the ticket while removing it from her wallet and burned it by accidentally placing it on a pipe, adding that she bought the ticket near the end of her shift the day they were sold.

Surveillance footage from inside lottery headquarters also captured Nunes and Reddem arguing over the $3 million prize money, which Cruz said prompted the employees to further question the ticket’s legitimacy.

Once investigators reviewed the surveillance footage from inside the liquor store and asked her about it, Cruz said Nunes changed her story and told them she had “inadvertently obtained the winning ticket.”

Nunes has since been charged with larceny from a building, attempted larceny, presentation of a false claim and witness intimidation. Reddem was charged with attempted extortion.

Detectives eventually tracked down the man who purchased the winning ticket nearly a month later, who Cruz said didn’t realize his costly mistake.

The Massachusetts State Lottery Commission intends to honor the victim’s $3 million ticket, according to Cruz.