Victim of stolen Texas lottery ticket says he knows how to get money backPrevious TopicNext Topic

Texan,

before you go over there, you should know that it was the store manager who first alerted the Lottery officials.  The initial story was covered on LotteryPost.  However, as LotteryPost reported, for some reason the manager waited a month after Joshi left for Nepal before reporting it.  Why the manager did not report Joshi when he was first suspicious I don't know.  The manager became suspicious after Joshi gave his 2 weeks notice.

Mr. Willis, Here is a thought....... it's called......."BOUNTY HUNTER"

Thank you Cal-Lotto for correcting my previous post on the terminology of indictment verses conviction.

As mad as this makes me, the Lottery is under no legal obligation to pay Willis. If they pay him it's solely out of altruism. Then THEY (as a state entity) could go after Jogi and seek extradition.

The case in Florida is another story. This past August, Louis Tolentino scratched himself a $500,000 winner, and put it in his back pocket UNSIGNED. When he got home it was gone. The difference here is that the Lottery has a clerk who's a witness and a printed confirmation ticket that confirms he bought it. They absolutely should pay him!

When I worked at a convience store we were not allowed to buy lottery tickets at the store we worked at.  So if the lottery officials go by thier own rules then the ticket does not belong to the store clerk.  Also if the gentlemen who bought the ticket can show he bought that number for years they should realize it is his ticket.  Don't know if the store clerk owns the store or not but they get a percentage for selling the winning lottery ticket.  If they can't get the money back from him, everyone should boycott buying tickets at that store.  They will lose money.   They get money for every ticket they sell and a percentage of every winning ticket including scratch offs.

The sad truth is that this man is gone and he will never be seen again.  This man has destroyed the true winner's life now and is laughing. He is telling all his friends how stupid Americans are. I hope this effects some changes. Maybe the US government will have this guy brought back. In Russia, the people who steal from Americans are heros. Food for thought.

That might not be true.  It all depends if Nepal has an extradition treaty with the USA and if Nepal enforces it.  As for Russia, you're right.  In certain towns, people who steal from US citizens are considered heroes.

It almost certainly wasn't a rule of the lottery that prevented you from buying tickets where you worked. Perhaps some state lottery prohibits it, but the vast majority of states apparently do not.  Within reason, a store is certainly free to make their own rules on many things their employees can't do. Many people think that store clerks have an unfair advantage, so perhaps management at your store decided to prohibit employees from playing there.

As pointed out by others, lottery tickets are bearer instruments, so there is a presumption that the person in possession of a ticket is the owner of the ticket. As near as we can tell from th einformation available, the lottery appears to have paid the prize in good faith. If so, the only way for th elotteyr to be held liable for making payment to Wilis is if the store is a legal agent of the lottery, thus making the lottery liable for malfeasance by the store or its employee(s). Despite people sometimes referring to lottery retailers as agents, it's extremely unlikely that the retailer is legally an agent of the lottery.

I did say "maybe", didn't I? Stealing money is a "small" crime compared with terrorism, drug dealing and fraud to the tune of untold millions and many suffering individuals. This man's loss is not small. I would love to see justice. It's too bad this man is so far away. I'm afraid that justice is dead for most people.

Correct me if I am wrong but in the first story didn't Mr. Willis give a long list of excuses about why he did not check his ticket himself? Now in this story:

"Willis returned to the Lucky Food Store on May 31 to have the Mega Millions ticket and two Cash 5 tickets scanned, because he had not been able to locate the winning numbers."

This is B.S. there was a scanner attached to the counter where all he had to do is scan his own tickets to see if they won. Also all he had to do is pick up a result slip from any place that sells lottery tickets. You can't swing a cat here in TX without hitting a lottery retailer. Also since you pretty much have to have cable in order to watch tv these days, Mr Willis could've gotten the results on cable channel 38 TXCN where the lottery results are displayed across the bottom of the screen 24/7.

I mean really give me a break. All this could've been prevented had Mr. Willis signed his ticket. Do I feel sorry for Mr. Willis? No not at all. Accountability is the key in this story. The only reason all of this was able to happen is because Mr. Willis did not do what he was supposed to do.

1.  Sign his ticket.

2.  Check his own ticket.

The TX Lottery Commission is not obligated to give Mr. Willis anything because he did not do what he was supposed to do, sign the g.d. ticket.  Read anything printed by the lottery commission and you will see

"Sign ticket before claiming. Anyone who possesses an unsigned ticket may be able to claim a prize. The Tx Lottery is not responsible for lost or stolen tickets or for tickets lost in the mail."

 Read the back of all the TX Lottery play slips. You want to know how to prevent this in the future? It's easy just "SIGN YOUR TICKET"

Well said

The story indicates the real winner will get $365,000 of his money. I wouldn't call that a "destroyed" life. Better than most scam victims recover.

Besides, if the store owner had said nothing, he wouldn't had known he lost out on collecting a million dollars.  Every years I hear of prizes that size going unclaimed and the persons who either lost their tickets or just didn't get around to checking it aren't any worst off as far as they know.

Very true. Just the other day TX was able to put $7 million into the kitty because of an expired MegaMillion ticket.

PERDUE..You made the best point in bold letters..I knew that in 1988 when I started buying lotto tickets..SIGN THE BACK..Simple as that..Put it your fridge or a bank vault till you go cash it..If's it millions sleep with it..