WINCHESTER BAY, Ore. — David Lane thought he'd won $1,000 with an Oregon Lottery Cash Flurries Scratch-it ticket.
He filled out his claim form and mailed the ticket off to Lottery headquarters in Salem.
Then the call came from a Lottery employee: Lane had incorrectly filled out the form.
"When I got David on the phone, I told him he had put the wrong dollar amount on his claim form," said Brandon Grover, a Lottery Security Specialist.
That disappointed Lane, who said he had a friend look over the ticket to confirm it was a $1,000 winner before sending the ticket to the Lottery.
"When the Lottery called me and told me I had put the wrong dollar amount on the form, I thought 'oh no,' " he said.
When Lane's ticket and claim form arrived in Salem, lottery staff noticed Lane had scratched 24 of the game's 25 snowflake symbols.
He had won $1,000.
But if you scratched the 25th snowflake — well, that's why Grover called.
"The phone went silent for a few seconds before he came back on and thanked me for calling," Grover with the Lottery said.
"They told me I that I had really won $100,000, not $1,000!" Lane said. "I couldn't believe it!"
His new advice for Scratch-It ticket players: "Scratch everything on the ticket."
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Thanks to tony869 for the tip.
Congratulation Mr. Lane
Awesome story Congrats Mr,David Lane
Always good idea to mail tickets in
Congrats Mr.Lane!
Now that's a mistake that didn't cost a fortune!
That guy was double lucky.
First, he won $100,000.
And second, he was dumb enough to trust the post office not to steal or lose the ticket and they didn't!
Now that's what you call good luck!
Those symbol tickets can be annoying and i bet a bunch are thrown out.
He should read the book on instant tickets for Dummies?
Congrats Mr Lane
Congrats to Mr. Lane
Nice job Mr. Lane, Congrats
$100K
Im serious. I'd never ever mail a winning lottery ticket. It it has to be claimed at headquarters I'll kindly go pick it up myself thank you very much
Ya gotta be some kinda goof to mail in a valuable ticket.
Post Office employees lose even more mail than they steal.
I doubly agree.