CLEARFIELD TWP — A Cabot woman is accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of lottery tickets from a convenience store where she worked, state police said.

Heather M. Szwarc, 30, allegedly stole scratch-off tickets from a lottery vending machine at the Steele Station Store on Route 422 in Clearfield Township.

Investigators allege Szwarc took the tickets, worth a combined $30,053, through most of 2012. Police arrested her Wednesday.

District Judge Lewis Stoughton arraigned Szwarc on felony counts of theft by unlawful taking and theft by deception, and a misdemeanor charge of tampering with records. She was placed in the Butler County Prison on $7,500 bail.

A preliminary hearing will be Jan. 22.

Szwarc began working at the store in September 2011. Police allege she began taking scratch-off tickets in January 2012.

Authorities suspect that daily she would take 30 to 50 tickets. The stolen tickets ranged at a cost of between $5 and $20.

Police were notified of the theft at the end of last year after an internal probe found discrepancies between the amount of money coming in for the tickets and how much the store was paying to the Pennsylvania Lottery, court records said.

Jeff Steele, store owner, who declined to comment, told police that a review of logs revealed the shortages occurred during shifts that Szwarc worked.

Troopers interviewed the suspect on Dec. 17. She said she never stole any money from the store but admitted she would scratch off Instant Tickets without paying for them, according to a police affidavit.

“(Szwarc) related that she mainly scratched off the $5 tickets,” documents said, “but (she) would also scratch off $10 and $20 tickets.”

She allegedly admitted she made erroneous entries in the Daily Instant Ticket Log, which allowed her to get away with the theft.

Documents did not disclose if any of the tickets Szwarc is accused of stealing were winners and redeemed for payout.