Lottery mistake wins Ohio store clerk $250,000

Jun 28, 2010, 7:41 am (19 comments)

Mega Millions

NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio — An Ohio store clerk's mistake when printing a Mega Millions lottery ticket has won her $250,000.

Naomi Mauller, a clerk at Woolfe's Huff & Puff on Main Street in New Lexington, Ohio, forgot to add an extra Kicker game to a customer's lottery ticket on Tuesday night, so she printed a new ticket and bought her $2 mistake.  Both her ticket and its twin hit, raking in $250,000 for each winner.

"You can't cancel the Mega Millions ticket," said Mauller, 51, a resident of New Lexington in Perry County. "So I thought, what the heck, for $2, I'll buy it. That was a mistake I'll never forget."

Mauller then processed a ticket with the same numbers and the Kicker for the customer. She wasn't at work Wednesday when owner Mike Kane learned two tickets bought from his store had won $250,000 each.

"Mike called me Wednesday and was asking me if I knew why two tickets would have been sold with exactly the same numbers on them," Mauller said. "My wheels started rolling and I thought, oh my God, I bought the ticket a customer didn't want. I told Mike, and he said to get down to the store and check the numbers. And when I did, it was a winner."

Mauller, who has worked as a clerk at the store for the past couple of years, said she wasn't familiar with the customer who bought the other winning ticket.

"He's not a regular of ours," Mauller said. "But I sure do owe him a big thank you and a huge hug."

Mauller said she is extremely excited and the first thing she's going to do with her money is buy a "decent car to get back and forth to work."

"Oh, I'll keep working," Mauller said. "I also want to help my two sons and daughter."

Mauller said she was so excited when she discovered she had won that she dialed her sister's number in Chandlersville, but then she couldn't speak.

"I had to have one of the other clerks tell her I won," Mauller said. "I think all the customers in the store thought I was crazed. But I'm just so excited."

The Ohio Lottery Commission said it has not confirmed who the other winner is. That winner had all five numbers, but not the Mega Ball number.

The winning numbers were 12, 17, 21, 23 and 30. The Mega Ball was 24.

AP

Comments

RJOh's avatarRJOh

She's lucky the customer didn't buy her mistake since he was only buying one ticket.   He probably didn't want to lose twice playing the same combination.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

What's the Extra Kicker Game he wanted added to the ticket?

PERDUE

I hope the customer doesn't return and say they are entitled to part of Ms. Mauller's win, due to the fact that it was their numbers she won on. You know greed is a mother******!!

Congratulations Ms. Mauller on your wonderful win and congratulations to the unknown customer who won also.

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Jun 28, 2010

What's the Extra Kicker Game he wanted added to the ticket?

KICKER is an independent auto pick 6 digit game that players can win $10 to $100,000 by matching 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 numbers, in exact order from left to right.  It can only be played by buying a MM tickets.

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by PERDUE on Jun 28, 2010

I hope the customer doesn't return and say they are entitled to part of Ms. Mauller's win, due to the fact that it was their numbers she won on. You know greed is a mother******!!

Congratulations Ms. Mauller on your wonderful win and congratulations to the unknown customer who won also.

I think that argument has been made before in similar cases and lost.  Combinations of numbers can't be copyrighted or owned.

ressuccess's avatarressuccess

What's this kicker for in Ohio? However, one ticket in Ohio win $250K on this draw.

PERDUE

Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Jun 28, 2010

I think that argument has been made before in similar cases and lost.  Combinations of numbers can't be copyrighted or owned.

True. But you know as well as I do how greed is a very very persuasive motivator. Just playing devil's advocate here. What is to stop the unknown customer from claiming that he/she was never offered the opportunity to purchase the ticket once the mistake on the ticket was brought to her attention. Keep in mind that this was not one of the regular customers.

After reading a lot of stories here at LotteryPost, I would not be surprised to hear that something like this has happened. Remember the story of the two old bats that feuded over a winning ticket? Remember the guy that was jumped because he won $1,000 bucks?

I always expect the bad shoe to drop when I read about the winners. 

People crawling out of the woodwork trying to lay claim to something they are not entitled to. Relatives, strangers, neighbors no one is above suspicion. 

What these people do is not right, but remember, they will do it in a heartbeat and with no remorse. They would rather see you have to spend it all on legal fees than see you enjoy it.

To be honest, my heart goes out to all jackpot winners because until I win a jackpot of my own, I will never know the h e l l they have to deal with because of their good fortune.

To all lottery players here is the number one rule you should never forget:  NEVER UNDER ESTIMATE THE POWER OF GREED!!! 

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Jun 28, 2010

KICKER is an independent auto pick 6 digit game that players can win $10 to $100,000 by matching 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 numbers, in exact order from left to right.  It can only be played by buying a MM tickets.

Thanks RJOh, never heard of that kinda thing on one of the big games before.

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

Congrats to Mrs. Mauller on her win!

Kobra

prime example of why you should buy mistake tickets if you have the moneyThumbs Up

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

"What is to stop the unknown customer from claiming that he/she wasnever offered the opportunity to purchase the ticket once the mistakeon the ticket was brought to her attention"

The customer is free to make such a claim, but there's absolutely no cause of action. Let's assume that they asked to buy it and the clerk refused. It wasn't a ticket they had asked the clerk to print, so the store had absolutely no responsibility to sell it to them. They asked for a MM ticket with the kicker and the clerk provided them with exactly what they requested. 5 of their numbers came up and they won exactly what they would have if the clerk hadn't printed the unrequested ticket, so they were completely unharmed by the printing of the other ticket.

Where the customer might have a valid claim would be if those numbers had won the jackpot. In that case the clerk's error would have reduced the value of the ticket that had been requested and purchased, causing substantial harm to the customer. We all know that in other cases where a ticket is printed in error the lottery asserts that the ticket is void, and no prize is won, so why isn't that true for MM? If that had happened I can safely guarantee that we'd be seeing a lawsuit.

dpoly1's avatardpoly1

I am hoping to win a jackpot without a mistake !

My best to all winners !

Big Grin

diamondpalace's avatardiamondpalace

Sometimes a gift is presented as trash.

HaveABall's avatarHaveABall

Another CLERK wins!  Congratulations and enjoy.Lurking

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