Store owner's investigation revealed pattern linking employee to thefts
By Kate Northrop
An Arkansas woman was sentenced to 120 months in prison after getting caught stealing nearly $250,000 worth of lottery tickets from her workplace.
An Arkansas woman accepted a negotiated plea deal after investigators found she stole almost $250,000 worth of lottery tickets from her employer over the course of several years.
Billie Rainwater, 47, has been sentenced to 120 months in the Arkansas Department of Corrections and 120 months suspended imposition of sentence, or supervised probation, following her release.
In October 2024, store owner Rachel Rice contacted local authorities to make a report about one of her employees stealing rolls of lottery tickets from Mill Creek Liquor on US-62 West in Pocahontas, an arrest affidavit says. Rice said that about a month prior, she had suspected that someone had been sneaking ticket rolls from the cabinet and alerted the Arkansas Lottery commission.
After "combing through" paperwork and tallying up the loss, she found that about $249,800 worth of lottery tickets had been stolen from the retailer since 2022.
Rice then set to work on finding out who was actively working when these stolen rolls of tickets were activated, and she discovered a rather incriminating pattern: Rainwater was the on-duty employee every single time.
According to Rice, each ticket roll had cost the store $600, with about four rolls stolen per week. The suspected damage, however, might have been more — she only has records dating back to 2022 and believes there could have been thefts in 2021 when the retailer had begun selling lottery tickets.
The Randolph County Sherrif's Office had Rainwater come in for an interview, during which she confessed to stealing "around two rolls of tickets each week for the last year," Captain Terry Green wrote in his report. But her account of when she began stealing the tickets differs from Rice's suspicions.
"I told Billie that the store owner, Rachel Rice, had documents showing that rolls of tickets had been going missing since 2022, and Billie stated that she hadn't been stealing them for that long," Green recounted in the arrest affidavit.
Rainwater was arrested in February 2025 and charged with theft of property valued at or over $25,000.
In addition to the sentencing that included jailtime and probation, she was ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution in the form of monthly payments of $2,085 starting 90 days after her release from jail.
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10 years in prison seems excessive. Eddie Tipton ended up serving shy of five years. Store owner didn't catch it until two years later. I bet that emboldened Billie to keep doing it. Oh and I doubt they will see all of that restitution paid back.
Wouldn't want to be in a dark alley with that linebacker!
Well BD,
No need to worry for the next 10 years at least
She said I will start making those restitution payments after my jail term after I finish paying off my student loans. I am an experienced convenience store worker. I will have no problem finding employment.
Politicians get less time for stealing and influencing much more .
Did she become a millionaire ?
10 plus 10 plus fine.. w😮w
She looks like a thief.
Don't forget the 10 years supervised release after the prison sentence completion. And the fine.
There's been white collar criminals who stole a lot more who got away with lighter sentences. The ability to pay for a good attorney makes a big difference.