$14.3 million Hot Lotto prize claim withdrawn

Maybe it was someone who had a scheme for winning Hot Lotto who would rather walk away this time and try again later rather than expose themselves, their scheme and risk not getting the jackpot too.

I'm certain that this is the case.   I thought about all the reasons possible for why somebody with the actual verified winning ticket would just drop their claim and this one seemed to be the most valid.  Here in Florida when you bring in tickets for the person at the counter to check they insert it into their terminal if it's not a winner it prints it in big bold letters across 3/4 of the ticket NOT A WINNER and if it was a winner it comes out with nothing and the ticket printer which is a small machine to the side prints out another ticket which they usually staple to the actual ticket to pay you.  In the case of a big winner the person would probably instruct you to take it to the local lottery headquarters.   Unless you were a complete idiot you would be hard pressed to be scammed with this method.  That said most places I've been they don't print this on the ticket, the guy behind the counter can say whatever they want and life goes on.  I personally check my tickets and a few times when I had winners I went to the store to collect and purposely brought in a few losers to go with my winner to see what the person would do and never once has somebody attempted to steal my winner.   

They need to release the picture of this winner, it's that simple.  If something more sinister has occured then it needs to be brought to light if people expect the general public to have confidence in the lotto process.   After seeing what happened to that lotto winner who was murdered I can't put anything past people when it comes to money.    That said it was after the fact of collecting but lets be honest that nobody would ever turn down a winning ticket for that much money.   Something very wrong has occured here that could range from retailer theft, inside job to murder.   Once again nobody is going to decline that kind of money and I don't care if you're a billionaire you're going to collect.

Time for them to put this picture out there, identify the person and work from there as it's obvious that person has no clue they have won.   I suspect the winner is not of age to buy lottery tickets but even then I think they would hire some slick lawyer to put up a fight on their behalf not just walk away from this incurring lawyer fees for the representation they have already received.   It's just crazy and releasing the picture of the winner would bring a quick ending to this story or at least advance it to the stage of fighting over who's ticket this really is.

Avoiding the law I agree is the only thing that makes sense here. Even if the person were an illegal alien, this vas far as I know would not disqualify them from collecting. This in fact would secure his/her Amercian Dream as the state would know firsthand he/she would not be a burden and can make a significant contibution. There is no restriction from non US citizens playing the lottery and any Q&A would quickly verify that. There bwas an illegal alien that won out of NYC before!

Maybe the lottery does know what is amiss here and confronted him and he went away knowing he was caught with his pants down and subsequently withdrew the claim.

Good points. I'll take a stab.

For a), my assumption is that officials have a good surveillance image of the purchase. If a close relative of a lottery employee claims the prize, it might come back to them. My guess is it is the fourth question they ask you when you file a big claim.

For b) and c) my point was they didn't walk away from collecting, but they could have sold the unsigned ticket at a discount -- even $4M cash for a $14M annuity sounds like a deal. I realize felons and illegal immigrants are eligible to collect, but they might not know that, or might not want to give their address to anyone remotely related to the tax system for the state, or just don't need any attention drawn to their community. I guess there is a difference between collecting anonymously and staying off the radar.

I'm waiting for a "Downfall" parody showing Hitler in the bunker, waiting for Shaw to let him know the prize has been collected...

savagegoose,

" so yea even tho we have a box to tcik saying NFP,  nor for publication, when you claim a lotto, the gov does know who you are."

Well that still is better than winning and having your name and photo plastered on lottery monitors all over your state.

When I told my wife about the NFP option on the tickets, she asked if that stood for, "No Freaking Payout".

"Has it occurred to anyone that there is a possibility that the ticket holder is already a multi-millionaire and that walking away from $14 million dollars is not that big of a deal for them?"

I knew it was Mitt Romney!  He bought a ticket on one of his many trips to Iowa. 

Lottery Officials have an in-store video recording of the lottery ticket being purchased and they say it looks like the person is of legal age.Wow,can you imagine if that $14.2 million lottery ticket was worth $100 million.That would have been really something to talk about.

Is it possible that its someone who works for the lottery who actually won?

there are too many lacunas in this story,where did crawford shaw the attorney get the ticket? there must have been some one  who handed the ticket to him,so mr.shaw could draft the legal contract that he took to hot lotto's office. in my opinion he is a liar,he has the information but he denies the true fact. how can he not know who is the real person who gave him the ticket,i smell a rat. its shame that 14 million dollars were not claimed, even multi-millionaires will not let this amount go there is more to this story which will reveal it self in coming weeks

The winner was Mitt Romney. But it would look terrible for him to accept the money right now with all the controversy surrounding his earnings and his 13.9% tax percentage. Seriously, I truly think the winner is someone well-off and in public office or has a huge public profile.

Nobody is going to turn down the money even if they are well off. 

This is one of three things.

A.  Even though they say the person appears to be of age unless he/she were a senior looks can be very deceiving.

B.  Somehow the store convinced this person it wasn't a winner and is now collecting the ticket for themselves. 

C.  Somebody stole the ticket from a friend/spouse when they saw it in their car or on a fridge.  The real winner has no clue they won.   When this happend in the past and somebody tried to get a divorce and keep it secret the full amount was awarded to the party that was trying to be stolen from.

The media should continue to hound the lottery on this one.  I know they have rejected them trying to use the freedom of information act or whatever it's called but it's time to take them to court.   Revealing the picture of the person who purchased this ticket is the only way to get to the bottom of this.  I'm kind of shocked they didn't do it sooner after nobody collected in a reasonable amount of time.   I just don't understand why somebody waited till the last possible moment to cash this in.

It's a great story either way but hopefully it comes to an end soon.

I think I agree with you.  I think someone stole the ticket and the true owner of the ticket was not aware that the ticket was a winner.  That is the only reasonable thing that makes sense.  If someone "sold" the ticket for a set amount of money, the financial transaction HAS to be recorded somewhere; ie money withdrawn or money deposited.  That scenario is easy to investigate.  I don't know of too many people who keep millions laying around in a safe in thier house.  The last possibility is that the true owner of the ticket has met with foul play and I hope that is not the case.