UPDATE: "Winner" was actually undercover inspector
By Todd Northrop
The search is on for a lottery winner in California who walked away with a much smaller prize than he actually won.
A man who went to cash out his Wild West Poker scratch-off lottery ticket at a Palmdale, California, gas station was given $75, but his ticket was actually worth $75,000.
Officials are trying to track down the man who went into a Palmdale store and was thousands of dollars short of his winnings.
Shamsun Hahar Islam, the Palmdale gas station manager, said the cashier misread the numbers on the machine.
"He gave the ticket to my cashier, and the cashier, he put it in the machine. And it looks like a 75 because he's focusing on the 75. He didn't focus on the zero," Islam said.
The man just took his money and left, and that's when the cashier realized his mistake.
The cashier called Islam right away. Russ Lopez with the California Lottery said he was contacted and the organization is conducting a slow, but thorough investigation.
"We have been contacted, but we haven't had enough time to get all the answers," said Russ Lopez of the California State Lottery.
The winner turned in the ticket March 25 but didn't sign the back of the ticket — so the recently released surveillance video is playing a big part in identifying him.
"If he cannot claim, then it goes back to the lottery company. I feel bad. I feel bad. I want to give him the ticket," Islam said.
The winner has six months to claim the full prize.
FLASH: "Winner" was actually undercover inspector
In a sudden twist of events, the California Lottery announced Monday that the "winner" of the $75,000 scratch-off prize was actually an uncover inspector for the lottery, and the Palmdale gas station has been placed under investigation.
The gas station released surveillance video of the purported winner on Sunday in an effort to identify the man and reward him his rightful earnings, the station's manager said.
But the video actually shows an undercover investigator from the California Lottery on an inspection stop, according to Russell Lopez, a deputy director for the lottery.
"This is an odd situation," Lopez said. "We don't want the public looking for a winner that doesn't exist."
So on Monday, lottery officials were forced to acknowledge the man seen in the video was an undercover compliance investigator and the gas station a current target of a state investigation.
Taken from behind the register, the video shows a man in a brown short-sleeved shirt and a backwards baseball cap waiting as the clerk examines the ticket and hands over cash. The interaction, which appears to take a few minutes, occurred March 25 at a Chevron station on Sierra Highway at East Avenue S.
"Since the store held onto the ticket, it appears the ticket was mishandled," Lopez said in a brief statement. "We are currently investigating this case."
The California State Lottery Act requires year-round compliance checks "to protect our business, our players, and yes, our retailers," Lopez said. Compliance is 98 percent, meaning almost all retailers "act with integrity and honesty," Lopez said.
Chevron station manager Shamsun Islam said the clerk realized his mistake after the apparent ticket-holder left.
The man had turned in a ticket for the top prize in the Wild West Poker Scratchers game. Players have a one in 1,196,120 chance of winning the $75,000 prize, according to the lottery's website for the game.
"He feels so bad," Islam said of the clerk.
The clerk immediately called Islam, who in turn called her boss, who instructed her to call California Lottery officials. Shamsun said lottery officials said someone would come by to pick up the ticket.
After several weeks, when no one appeared, she reached out to news media to try to find the man she believed was owed $75,000.
No determination has been made as to the intent of the gas station clerk or manager, Lopez said. He told the Los Angeles Times that officials were trying to determine if authorities were ever notified about the ticket, and if any fraud was committed.
Until Shamsun went public with the surveillance video, officials had been waiting to see if anyone would try to file a claim on the $75,000, the Times reported.
Islam, meanwhile, urged lottery players to always fill out the fields for name and contact information on their tickets.
And this is why you should always check your ticket yourself. Humans can always make mistakes. I hope they find the winner.
Unbelievable! How do you misread $75.00 from $75,000.00???
The CA lottery is saying that the guy who turned in the ticket was actually an under cover lottery agent.
Stay tuned for the news at 11!
If it was me I wouldnt be annoyed at all.
because i wouldnt $^^$%^& know.
What the hell? Most states, at least my state won't even give you a dollar amount over $500, it just tells you to contact the lottery office or something like that. This should never have happened. At least the clerk and owner were honest, so good on them. There should be no 6 month maximum time to reclaim his prize since the clerk screwed up, it should be held in a trust account until he is found, period.
Just imagine what you could do with $75,000.00 !
"misread"........riiiight! Sounds like there will be a job for clerk opening up soon.
Chances are the guy will be back again to purchase more scratchoffs.
He's got 6 months.
I thought the terminal usually informs the clerk to inform the customer to file a claim at the lottery offices when the prize exceeds $600? Maybe that's just in Massachusetts
I agree, and this issue is WHY they do this. No one wants the lottery agent seeing how much its worth. They just need to know they can't cash it.
If the clerk had scanned the ticket it would not have given him an amount he was not authorized to pay out. It would have referred the winner to the lottery office. This sounds like a scam gone wrong.
YEP! Saw that...lol...
Dude was undercover for the lottery!
Yes, a very thorough investigation lol
The clerk had a change of heart when he saw the customer climb into a van with a California lottery banner on the side
I look at this from a different angle. If you are "the winner" and you are soooo feeble that you, as "the winner" let the clerk pay
you $75 off a $75k hit then you really don't deserve the $$$.
The winner deserves to be paid what he won.
The news story has been updated with the latest surprise twist!
Obviously the winner never checked his ticket first. I'm thinking that perhaps he was a regular lottery customer and there fore the clerk knew him, if not his name, and realized his error and told his boss.
Just saw the story update so I guess this wasn't the case about him being a regular customer, but it's good to know there are honest clerks.
So this ticket was scanned over a month ago and the store owner is saying his cashier made " a mistake?"...Your Store has been under Sur-veil-lance Sir. Did you ever ask yourself why Mr Islam? I think you know now that the pieces are falling into place...don't you?
There is no $75000 prize. There is no winner. The "winner" was an inspector. Therefore there is no time period needed to collect.
These sewer rats are not showing signs of stopping. Perhaps the business should lose the license to sell lottery and that ban should continue for 5 years for that particular address when the business gets sold. Then throw the thieving clerk in jail
Sounds like a scam that went bad on both sides, the state waiting for someone to try and claim the fake prize and the clerk and manager realizing a prize that size would be fully investigated.
Ok- lets dissect this report...
The gas station released surveillance video of the purported winner on Sunday in an effort to identify the man and reward him his rightful earnings, the station's manager said.
Oh yeah they did release the surveillance video....After more than a Month with the ticket in their possession.
"Since the store held onto the ticket, it appears the ticket was mishandled," Lopez said in a brief statement. "We are currently investigating this case."
Sure it was MISHANDLED, why?... because if these folks were so "concerned" about the money getting back to the rightful Owner, why not send the ticket Certified Mail back to the Lottery HQ stating that they " wanted nothing to do " with this ticket and it was now up to the California Lottery to track this person down- INSTEAD, this outfit stewed and brewed over whether to come forward and claim or perhaps visions of Chris Hansen coming through their door with a camera crew made them hesitate for over A MONTH...
Chevron station manager Shamsun Islam said the clerk realized his mistake after the apparent ticket-holder left.
So why hang onto the ticket Islam, and lets dispense of the " California lottery folks were going to swing by and pick up the ticket"
"He feels so bad," Islam said of the clerk.
Sure he feels bad, because he probably looked at that ticket on a daily basis wondered " what if"..and now its gone.
The clerk immediately called Islam, who in turn called her boss, who instructed her to call California Lottery officials. Shamsun said lottery officials said someone would come by to pick up the ticket.
* Turns out Shamsun is a female.....oops.
sure there isn't a Patel in there somewhere?.....Naturally the State Lottery is investigating the place....so MANY misread tickets...so little time !!! Beau
They only feel "bad" when they are caught !!! and feel Sorry when they get caught "
Duh, nice Monday morning quarterbacking after Todd updated the story to include that information that we did not have when we made our comments.
I bet that manager wanted to cash it but got cold feet and backed out. If he was that concerned he would of brought the ticket to the LO.
An honest mistake. Clerks know that $75,000 will never be paid over the counter! He may have thought the machine was malfunctioning since it allowed the ticket to be paid. Don"t think there was any dishonesty here.
thanks for the update Todd.
I want to know how a system can develop where a $75k prize can deliver $75 cash to a winner. surely there is tax implications.
WTF is wrong with the state lotto to even allow such a system to exist.
as in the prompt on the screen should say,
take $10 of customer for sales,. ,,,, pay 75 in prizes or major prize, get divers licence and address for identity purposes.
surly you have tills that add and subtract the balance from the float as the day progresses, keeping tabs on what should be in the till at the end of the night? no payout any cash should have ever been prompted.
Sorry...I don't believe this....the store was already under investigation..I think they knew they were under investigation and changed their minds at the last minute and then reached out to try to find the winner..well..the planted winner...yeah right...
DUH...
Sorry got home late from work.
Don't get your panties in a wad.
The man had turned in a ticket for the top prize in the Wild West Poker Scratchers game. Players have a one in 1,196,120 chance of winning the $75,000 prize, according to the lottery's website for the game.
So, the lottery inspector just happened to have a big winner!? Aren't lottery employees prohibited from playing? My next concern is how in the hell did the lottery inspecter get a winning ticket? I want people to think about that for a long while. Actually I think they just outed themselves since they seem to be able to come up with a winning ticket on the fly to investigate these places.
I cant believe some of the comments on here at times.
This was not the undercover agents personal ticket. It was part of the inspections he does to make sure that the people are not getting fleeced by the retailer like we here about so many times. He was working for the state and checking out different retailers.
Careful Atoz- You keep making comments that make perfect sense and you will be labeled a Hater... As someone once said.
Do you believe everything the government tells you? I can't believe people won't look into how the lottery inspector just happened to pull a big 75,000 ticket. ( yes the clerk was in the wrong ) However it does put a spotlight on how the lottery investigation services came up with the ticket in the first place.
Careful Pick- You keep making comments like that and people will think you never travel outside your trailer Park, let alone your State.
It's a little embarrassing to have to explain something so simple, but here goes.
The inspector didn't just happen to pull a $75000 ticket. The commission had this ticket made for the express purpose of testing a retailer. It was not a real winning ticket. It wasn't even a real ticket. It never was put out for sale. Lottery commissions do this all the time to make sure retailers aren't stealing from customers. Which is a real good thing.
I hear you noise-gate.... my bad....lol ;-)
This was a honest mistake. When the manger, called the California Lottery official, the lottery official said someone would come by to pick up the ticket. The manger when to the new media to try to find the real winner. I have to say he did all he could have done. There no ground to fraud here. My only question is this. Since the California Lottery officials used a top prize ticket to this game to try to entrap this station manager then that prize is no longer available for the real players of the game what are they going to do about this?
Making ASSumptions like that doesn't doesn't give you a moral high ground to talk smack. If you and your new buddy have a problem the way I am looking at things, then tell us how the lottery inspector got a 75,000 ticket to investigate the place.
Yes!! Finally someone else points it out.
Since the California Lottery officials used a top prize ticket to this game to try to entrap this station manager then that prize is no longer available for the real players of the game what are they going to do about this?
Watch out cbr$ my haters might not like you pointing that out.
The ticket was not real.
It was never put out for sale.
It was given to the inspector by the commission to test the retailer.
It was not meant to entrap the retailer. But to see if the retailer would try to cheat the inspector.
In case you have not noticed-l live in California.The lottery outfit out here, not in other States does this all the time when a store has been on their radar.We are the most populous State and it puts up Billions of dollars towards the jackpots. .It's only right that our Lottery Officials weed out suspected shady stores..Don't you guys have these operations in your State?..l guess not.
hey noise and buckeye....i cant believe these posters still cant understand..... i dont think it can be explained any better.
How could I have missed this gem...
" Then tell us how the lottery inspector got a 75,000 ticket to investigate the place"Can anyone help me out here with the answer anyone?
I am going to take an educated guess and say: Since we know that he works for the lottery, l " think" they * Calottery... gave him the ticket. Where do you think he got the ticket Pick? Enlighten us ..
***l knew there was a reason l liked you.
We also know about retailers who cash in tickets that they have discounted. The profit motive is strong.
The California lottery should start a subscription service. It would be very convenient and safer for players. It would also generate more revenue for the state.
The ticket was fake and never part of the game. The lottery can program a terminal to recognize a ticket as a winner.
(Not that my saying this would quell any conspiracy theories...to the contrary
)
I think a solution exists to this problem.....glasses!
I think the cali lottery has some problems releasing a statement that they are looking for a winner and then saying it was an investigator........ this is so wrong !!! one hand don't seem to have a clue what the other is doing. something stinks here.
finally some one with a brain on here.
Ok, so if the lottery can program a terminal to recognize a ticket as a winner, it makes me wonder what else they could do.
The State of California Employees have a wonderful retirement package. They will not risk losing it . I trust them.
Further, I think that this lottery retailer gang came up with a rather elaborate "damage control" saga! However, I don't think all of this gang's creative 'thinking efforts' will keep the California Lottery Headquarters from shutting them down. This lottery retailer probably had received a few, prior, complaints from customers; which lead to the actual security official showing up to test the gang.
Here's what I want to know- How come in real life over 90% of the inter city stores (mostly Arab) the ticket checker doest work!!!!!!!!!!!!! and every other store they do? Thief's! I never give my ticket until it's checked.I know this guy was from the Lotto office yet I bet you the ticket checker was broke in this fine estblisment.
yeah i guess that explains it. broken ticket checkers.
If there was a Nobel prize for cluelessness you'd be the front runner.
I think you missed my point.
This is a good idea hopefully OLC participates in an under cover investigation.