DUNN, N.C. — Kecia Nehring Parker's favorite lottery numbers turned out to be lucky in more than one way.
Not only did they win her a prize of nearly $88,000, but her clockwork regularity in playing them enabled North Carolina State Education Lottery investigators to track her down after they took the winning ticket from a convenience store owner accused of trying to steal her jackpot.
"I was very surprised," she said Friday. "But it's definitely a good surprise."
Dunn police say that when Parker brought the winning ticket into a Pop Mart, about 40 miles south of Raleigh, the store's owner, Sureshbha Patel, told her it wasn't a winner and kept it, later trying to claim its winnings for himself. On Wednesday, Patel was arrested and charged with felony larceny and attempting to obtain property by false pretenses. He was freed after posting $50,000 bond.
The telephone at Patel's home in Dunn was disconnected Friday. A person who answered the phone at the Pop Mart store hung up on a request for comment.
"I had no idea I had won," Parker said. "I didn't check my tickets anymore. I just let them scan them in and tell me."
Although Parker bought her winning ticket in August during a family vacation in Carolina Beach, Patel didn't bring it into state lottery headquarters until Feb. 8, according to officials. When retailers at locations with lottery sales claim winnings, officials use extra scrutiny in examining their tickets, lottery spokesman Van Denton said.
He declined to detail the enhanced security procedures but said the prize was never awarded to Patel. Lottery sales were indefinitely suspended at the Pop Mart in Dunn on Wednesday.
"People play the lottery and when they win, they should get their prizes," Denton said. "We take that very seriously."
It was Parker's persistence that allowed lottery investigators to find her once they had the ticket. Ever since North Carolina's lottery began in 2006, Parker has played the same five numbers every week, almost always buying her tickets at the same BP gas station on Saturday morning in Dunn.
That station — different from the Pop Mart owned by Patel — was able to provide investigators with months of surveillance footage showing Parker come in to play the combination of 9-13-16-17-21 in the Cash 5 game. She says the numbers don't have any particular significance and are just her lucky numbers.
Parker, who has two children, plans to put the money aside for college costs. In the meantime, she's also sticking to her regular Saturday routine of playing the lottery — same lucky numbers and all.
A happy ending indeed! But it amazes me that she did'nt check her own numbers to see if she had won. Never leave that up to retailers.
ahh prob also looked at video footage of when the winning ticket was bought and compared the two images.
how exactly they tracked her down i dunno
Way to go NC!
Now lock that SOB up for a loooong time!
Hey Tennessee! Are you paying attention!
Nah, didn't think so.
They said how they found her in the beginning of the article:
Kecia Nehring Parker's favorite lottery numbers turned out to be lucky in more than one way.
Not only did they win her a prize of nearly $88,000, but her clockwork regularity in playing them enabled North Carolina State Education Lottery investigators to track her down after they took the winning ticket from a convenience store owner accused of trying to steal her jackpot.
This artcle is somewhat scant on the details, but she had been playing the 5 same numbers since North Carolina began their lottery. How awesome is that?
Very.
How is it possible everyone is named patel?....no matter where I see convenience store stories from around the country or here ,that same last name is always there.
lmmigration really needs to look into this stuff
You would think state lotteries could eliminate this problem by requiring stores to return losing tickets to their customers after they are scanned. The winner probably thought buying her ticket and having it scanned at different locations eliminated the chances of someone stealing her ticket if it was a winner.
At the stores where I buy my tickets, some of the clerks always return my tickets after they are scanned even the winners. I've asked the other clerks who don't and they've said they aren't allowed to, so I suspect they are setting themselves up to look normal keeping and throwing away scanned tickets in case they get a big winner and want to scam the customer by paying a smaller prize so I high lite my winning numbers and know what I've won before cashing my tickets. I've only had winning tickets scanned to collect my prizes.
This is so funny to me because I was in that store Sunday night playing my tickets.. I do not normally go there but the BP station was packed... I stopped going to this store about 2 years ago because I believed that he was shady..... Boy was I right... He had some winning scratch off tickets hung up in the store and I asked him if he had any big winners there and he said NO... \Now I see why... I hope they nail his ass to the wall..
I knew something was not right with him.. I have learned to trust my senses...
Kinda makes you wonder how often people aren't checking their tickets and don't even know that a store owner has taken their winning ticket and given them a paltry few bucks in return.....Glad to hear she got her winnings in the end!!
Congratulations to Miss Parker and the NC Lottery, job well done.
on another note ...bye bye Patel..
"I had no idea I had won," Parker said. "I didn't check my tickets anymore. I just let them scan them in and tell me."
WTF!!! Why in he11 does this idiot play the lottery?! It is stupid azz players like this that pisses me off. Why play if you are too dam* lazy to check your fu**ing ticket!
I expect the retailers to be crooked somewhere along the line, but when the lottery players are too sorry to check their own tickets then they deserve to be ripped off as often as possible.
This ding-bat sea-donkey gotta be related to Texas' own WILLIS-WILLIS..... They must be twins or something. The state should've kept the money and put it to good use.
Although Parker bought her winning ticket in August during a family vacation in Carolina Beach, Patel didn't bring it into state lottery headquarters until Feb. 8, according to officials. When retailers at locations with lottery sales claim winnings, officials use extra scrutiny in examining their tickets, lottery spokesman Van Denton said.
I am glad to see that the NC lottery commission gives extra scrutiny to tickets being cashed by retailers. And to think that Mr. Patel had the nerve to wait until the ticket had almost expired, only to end up being arrested. lol
Oh to see the look on his face when he was arrested was priceless!!! What a kodak moment sure hate I missed it.
Sign the back of your tickets. Check your own numbers. How hard is that?
Lottery drawings and results are available on TV, radio, online, in newspapers, and by telephone. Many retailers even have counter scanners at which you can check your own tickets. Why set yourself up to become a victim?
Whenever I present a ticket to a lottery agent, I already know it's a winner and I know how much I've won. If they try to tell me the ticket is not a winner, believe me, I get my ticket back and re-check the numbers myself.
But to the main point I noted from this story...have you all noticed that this is the 2nd or 3rd such story to come out about dishonest retailers/clerks in the span of just a couple of weeks? And as with any wrongdoing or crimes, you can imagine that a lot more goes unreported/undiscovered (I feel for you Tennesseans...when I was a truck driver I made it a point to not purchase a ticket in TN whenever I passed through there after reading about the direction the TN lottery was moving). So 3 have been outted in the past month, but I imagine that at least 50 or 100 other dishonest clerks/retailers have gotten away with similar crimes.
So although playing the lottery is not a criminal act (as my wife would have me believe), I do believe it is not only criminal for a person to play the lottery and never check to see if they actually won, it is moreso criminal for any retailer to either ripoff a customer or aid in claiming a ticket for a customer just because that customer owes back taxes, child support, or other wage garnishing events (and believe you me, I am a big proponent of a value added tax on consumer goods, elimination of taxes on any type of income and therefore elimination of the IRS...small government...small government pensions). I am a military veteran (not active duty so I can comment about the man at the top with no fear of retribution) and educated at a top school in the Midwest (so I am just as qualified as the man serving at the top)....I for one would like to see some action to move our country in the right direction...and the start would be in eliminating taxes on lottery winnings. Would the LP community support such a person for public office, be it Congress or the White House? Or can we expect more of the same the next 4 years that we have received the past 2 years?