MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Detectives say Bryan Kelly of Melbourne stole scratch-off lottery tickets every chance he got, at least until his wife saw surveillance pictures on TV from convenience stores in Melbourne and Satellite Beach and called detectives.

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Kelly, though, was in Texas volunteering after Hurricane Ike and investigators never expected him to come back.

Detectives had just about all the evidence they needed with surveillance video of Kelly snagging lottery tickets and shoving them down his pants. They had images of Kelly at at least five different convenience stores, distracting the clerk and then taking his chance at grabbing scratch-offs, sometimes with his daughter in tow.

Kelly's luck, though, was about to run out, once deputies got hold of the images and released them.

"Several of his friends from school and his acquaintances started calling in," explained Agent Greg Richter, Brevard County Sheriff's Office.

Even his wife, who wasn't pleased, called deputies.

"Kinda disheartened by what she had seen, because she did not know he was doing it," Richter said.

But Kelly wasn't anywhere around. Investigators said, after spending a month and half snagging scratch-offs at every turn, he took off to Texas to try his hand at clearing hurricane debris removal.

"Why did you come back?" WFTV reporter Kevin Oliver asked Kelly.

"Because I got responsibilities," he said.

Once his wife and deputies found him, he returned and turned himself in. Deputies said they were surprised he actually did return considering how far away he was and that he's facing as many as 10 felonies. That could amount to as much as 15 years in prison for stealing tickets that ended up worthless once they were reported stolen.

The state lottery can void tickets once someone realizes they've been stolen. Detectives said Kelly was able to avoid that, in a couple of instances, by cashing in some of the stolen tickets before they were reported.