Men who threw away $100,000 scratch ticket now seek prize

Feb 25, 2005, 2:12 pm (22 comments)

Indiana Lottery

Two men who say they bought a scratch-off lottery ticket and threw it away are seeking the $100,000 prize a woman claimed after she plucked it from a cafe's trash can.

The men -- Ron Douglas of Waldron and Ron Vinson of Shelbyville, Indiana -- have hired a lawyer who said he sent a formal request to Hoosier Lottery officials for a $100,000 payment.

Attorney Lee McNeely said he also talked about the situation with Ellen Corcella, the lottery's security director.

"The letter that I forwarded to them offered to meet with them at their earliest convenience to work this out in an amicable fashion," McNeely told The Shelbyville News for a story Thursday.

The ticket was tossed into the trash at the Chaperral Cafe on Feb. 8 after a clerk told Douglas and Vinson that the $5 ticket wasn't the $40 winner they were hoping it was, lottery officials said.

Customer Karrie Jeremiah said she then retrieved the ticket, planning to enter it into a second-chance drawing before later finding out it was a big winner.

Lottery officials on Feb. 10 issued Jeremiah a check for $71,600 -- the amount after taxes were withheld.

Corcella has said the lottery was looking into the circumstances surrounding how the ticket was discarded in the city about 20 miles southeast of Indianapolis, but believed Jeremiah was the rightful winner.

McNeely said his clients believe they were entitled to the money because of "what we believe is a faulty scanning procedure on the lottery machines."

AP

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JAP69's avatarJAP69

 

I knew this was going to happen.

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

too bad for the men., had they signed the ticket, they would have a case, but it's a matter of finder's keepers. the men may have a god case against the Hoosier Lottery though, since it was their machine that resulted in the discarding of the ticket.

qutgnt

They are idiots for not knowing the ticket was a winner themselves, but if its true the clerk told them it wasnt a winner based on what the machine said then the machine is liable. Or the employee which would make the store liable.  Just hard to tell here if it was an honest mistake or not.  Indiana who makes a mint anyway should just pay them off this once time and claim it was an honest mistake.    Just fix the RNG for a few drawing to spit out no pick three winners!

four4me
Quote: Originally posted by JAP69 on February 25, 2005



 

I knew this was going to happen.





Me too........ and i see some polygraph testing in the works if the employee jipped the guys then we'll here more about this story soon. I agree that the guys that bought the ticket should have been able to tell for themselves if it was a winner but who knows they might not be americans and couldn't read it. However they trusted the person to check the ticket as being a winner of a fourty dollar prize they should have just asked if the ticket was a winner period and not threw in that little tidbit about 40 dollars. And if the person actually checked it on the machine then it would have came up a winner. By not responding that they in fact had a winner that employee stole the ticket from them.
lazyjim's avatarlazyjim

I would like to see them check the bank statements of the clerk and see if there was any relationship between the clerk and the customer who took the ticket out of the garbage.

RJOh's avatarRJOh

These guys are going feel sh**** on if they find out it was just a publicity stump pulled by the actual winner, she can always claim it was just a joke.  Ohio once published a story about a $8M jackpot ticket that was canceled by a women who played the wrong numbers by mistake and now most people will buy any extra tickets printed mistakenly rather the have them canceled, I know I do.  I doubted the story from the beginning because who would be dumb enough to tell anyone they found something that belonged to someone else if they wanted to keep it for themselves, they would have turned it into the loss and found department in the first place hoped to be rewarded for their honesty.

RJOh

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

now most states will not cancel tickets.

RJOh's avatarRJOh

In Ohio, you can still cancel the local games, but not the MegaMillions tickets. 

RJOh

four4me

you cant cancel a mega mil ticket in maryland. And you cant cancel some promotionel tickets. You can cancel all others if you do so before the draw.

This story is about a scratch off ticket. That an employee pilfered from the customer. It's no wonder the customer found out about it the story about the employee cashing it was all over the internet last week and was even on AOL's front page.

Potential

I used to work at a convenient store, gas station. We sold lots of beer, and the people that came in there were pretty much stupid shiits IMO. This one mexican would ask for a pick 3 lottery result , look at the numbers and play the morning draw after it played, come back in later and try to tell me he won by showing me the same ticket he played, he always played exact for $1.00. I would point out he played a night draw and the number he picked had already played. He would rant and rave cussing me out in Spanish. I would point out the day and night difference, and he'd be like OH! I DIDN'T KNOW...SORRY. Then he'd throw the ticket away, like I said Stupid Drunk Phucks, of course I'd be there to collect it. Everytime he threw it away I would wait for the night draw, of course about 18 days later, I won on stupid shiit's trashed ticket. Did I tell Biitch-Pup, hell no! All that SOB did was waste his life away on beer. I got no- respect for alcoholics.

KyMystikal's avatarKyMystikal
Quote: Originally posted by lazyjim on February 25, 2005


I would like to see them check the bank statements of the clerk and see if there was any relationship between the clerk and the customer who took the ticket out of the garbage.


I was wondering the same thing and how do you think a $100,000 winning ticket could be a $40.00 winner?? If I thought I'de won something I'de study the ticket very carefully and if I was sure I'de won when they told me it wasn't, I'de take it to another lottery store to check it there.
Rick G's avatarRick G

Two guys buy a ticket.  They figure they won $40 on $100,000 winning ticket.

I have a couple questions...

1) What was the combined IQ of these two "minds" and why are they playing a lottery game that they do not understand how it is won?  Two people, mind you, not one, eliminating the chance of one person making a mistake and yet they claim they both did.

2) Why did the "garbage picker" decide to check that particular ticket for a win?  All of us lottery players know how many losing tickets are in the garbage can by the terminal.  It would take a clerk and/or scanner an hour to verify that all these tickets were losers.

From the article as it reads, my assumption is that the two "purchasers" are either total idiots or trying to scam their way to a $100,000.

OR the clerk was a real sharpie who snagged that ticket out of the garbage and called a friend to cash it in. 

I hope the liar(s) spend some time in jail for fraud.

Either way, it looks like Indiana is not a place to play lottery and I would also stop frequenting their casinos; if the continued crookedness is going on in their lottery, it only makes sense that it extends to their gambling boats too.  Caveat Emptor.

Too bad for them...they have a huge market from IL at the southern end of Lake Michigan. 

 

tg636

Lotteries need to put an end to these "lost ticket" shenanigans. They need to post a sign making it clear that convenience store clerks make mistakes, can try to rip you off and are not the final word in determining a winning ticket, and that if you have any disputes or doubts sign the ticket and take it to a lottery office.  And that if you throw away a winner, then nothing will help you, so be damn sure before you toss it.

fja's avatarfja

No such thing as bad publicity if it involves 100,000 or more.....

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