That's sad. Well hopefully the thief who stole his wallet will get what's coming to him.

It's sad but lots of lottery winnings have to go unclaimed.  If lotteries gave unclaimed winnings to anyone claiming to have lost their ticket, they would have lots more people showing up to make a claim for the same winnings, similar scam stories have been in the news many times.  It would probably also encourage people with insider knowledge of the unclaimed winnings to start making claims too.

I agree, but would making a copy of the front and back of your ticket help?  There are specific numbers that identity the ticket and where/when it was purchased.  At least it might keep someone else from claiming it.  I've never made copies of any of my tickets, but it's just something that popped into my brain when I read this article.

Signing your ticket may prevent someone else from cashing it if it wins enough to require I.D.  Photo copies of the winning tickets have been used in court to settle ownership claims as in the case of the the Chicago commodities workers pool when an office worker claimed their winning ticket belonged to her.  The trouble is most people consider their lottery tickets worthless until after they find out one's a winner.  All lottery tickets should be treated as valuable documents until confirmed to be losers.

True. The guy probably shouldn't have kept the ticket in his wallet. He probably thought it was one of the safest places to keep it.

About 6 months ago someone went through my car and kinda tossed evrything out of the glove boxes and onto the seat, including my lottery cards, (They were in one of those plastic covers), and my lottery ticket for that previous day.  They didn't even bother to look through it or take it, otherwise they would have had a $10 bill that I had left in there behind the card.  (the ticket was a loser though).  I wonder what would have happened if the ticket was a winner.

Well, the sad part is that I keep mine in my wallet too. But as soon as I get home I take them and put them in my office in my computer room. But there are times that i forget But trust and believe that I hang on to my purse for DEAR LIFE knowing that there in there LMAO. I think that if you have a front and back copy of the ticket and then lets say perhaps sign it before you make the copy? they can see then that you had the ticket as well get a handwriting analysis and then MAYBE they would see that you not full of  Sh1t so that would be my only other thought

That's a great story. I'm disappointed that the winning ticket and the wallet got stolen. I hope the stolen wallet and winning ticket return. If I travel outside the US, I have to keep everything secure.