The mystery began on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010. Time: 3:24 p.m. Scene: a QuikTrip, 4801 N.E. 14th St., near Interstate Highway 35/80 in Des Moines.
Somebody bought a Hot Lotto ticket there. Six days later, the ticket turned into a $16.5 million winner. Then the ticket went unclaimed for 364 days, 22 hours and 10 minutes.
At 2:10 p.m. on Dec. 29, two attorneys from the prominent Des Moines firm Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors & Roberts PC presented the ticket, one hour and 50 minutes before it was to expire.
But the winner remains hidden.
The main person responsible for unraveling the mystery: an Army veteran and former police officer named Steve Bogle, Iowa Lottery vice president for security.
There is more at stake in this case than millions of dollars. The integrity of the Iowa Lottery is on the line. If anonymous, faceless trusts claim major prizes, it undermines public confidence and gives the impression of impropriety in the game, Bogle said.
"It doesn't work if people don't believe everybody has the same odds of winning," he said. "There is nothing to suggest anything improper has been done here, but we need to check every angle to know if the ticket was legally obtained, legally possessed and legally claimed."
The ticket was signed by Crawford Shaw of Bedford, N.Y. Shaw signed as trustee for Hexam Investments Trust. Shaw, 76, is also an attorney. He is not the winner. He represents the person or people who won. Shaw has said he plans to meet with Iowa Lottery officials this week.
"I think everything will be OK when all the facts are put on the table," Shaw said.
They'll have to be. If the person or persons behind the trust Shaw represents aren't known to lottery officials, they won't get paid.
"If we can't get that information, there is no way I can recommend to (Iowa Lottery CEO) Terry Rich that they pay this ticket," Bogle said.
So Bogle is both detective and honor guard in the strangest jackpot in the 26 years of Iowa Lottery history. He won't reveal the specific steps he's taking to verify the claim, but Bogle was a lawman for 36 years and has handled cases from murder to petty theft. He knows his way around an investigation.
Bogle 'a person who does things right'
Bogle joined the lottery in August 2011 after retiring as a brigadier general in the Iowa Army National Guard.
He knew he wanted to be a lawman in his early teens, in part from watching Jack Webb TV shows such as "Dragnet" and "Adam-12."
A 1975 East High School alumnus, Bogle joined the Guard at 17 and became an MP. Eventually, he became a Des Moines police officer. Then Bogle got mad at the Des Moines police department and wanted to quit. He can't remember what ticked him off.
"It shows how important it really was," Bogle said in retrospect. "The only thing I knew how to do was be a cop or a soldier. I decided I didn't want to be in that position ever again and got serious about my education."
He worked overnight shifts and went to school full time to earn a pre-law degree in 1986 from Grand View University, then called Grand View College. In the middle of his studies, he took a year to become a helicopter pilot for the Guard, flying rescue missions out of Fort Hood, Texas, and other locations.
After leaving the police force, he became director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the state's top criminal investigation agency.
Nobody is better suited to lead the investigation than Bogle, said Gene Meyer, Bogle's longtime friend and former director of the Iowa Department of Public Safety, which houses the investigation division.
"If you want something handled right and with great integrity, there is no question Steve will take care of it," Meyer said. "He is a person who does things right. He has great vision and he earns his opportunities."
Little made public about the winner
Even Bogle seems to be as puzzled as the public about the elusive winner.
"Like everyone else, I want to know where this ticket has been for the last year," Bogle said. "Basically, we start at the end — the day it was claimed — and work backward."
Large jackpots are generally claimed within a few days of announcement of the winning numbers. A prize of $600,000 went unclaimed in 1987, the largest sum left on the table in Iowa. Dozens of smaller prizes, as much as $250,000, have gone unclaimed.
Little has been made public about the person who bought the ticket. Iowa Lottery officials have reviewed store surveillance camera footage. They declined to identify the gender of the person or whether the individual paid with cash or debit card. (Credit cards may not be used to buy lottery tickets.)
The lottery has received dozens of claims the ticket was stolen. Such claims are common when big jackpots are awarded, officials said, though they plan to investigate the veracity of each claim. The alleged theft victims, however, all failed to sign the ticket. Under Iowa law, a lottery ticket is a "bearer instrument," which means the person who possesses the ticket owns it — unless the ticket is signed. Even the actual winner or winners never signed the ticket, instead delegating the task to Shaw as a trustee.
However, lottery officials are certain the ticket is genuine. They just don't know who bought it.
Principal players await parlor scene
The lottery player from December 2010 bought 10 plays over five Hot Lotto drawings for a total of $10. The player selected two sets of six numbers to be played in drawings on Dec. 25 and 29, 2010, and Jan. 1, 5 and 8, 2011.
The winning numbers were 3, 12, 16, 26, 33 and a Hotball of 11. The winner hit on the second of the five drawings on Dec. 29, 2010. At the time, the ticket was worth $16.5 million as an annuity payment.
That annuity pot has decreased because of the slumping stock market since the drawing. It is now worth a $14.3 million annuity. The one-time cash payment value of the ticket remains at about $10.8 million. The winner or winners have 60 days from claiming the prize to select cash or annuity payment.
But before that, the mystery must have a parlor scene — a literary term for the climax of crime novels where the true culprit, or in this case, lottery winner, is revealed.
Shaw says that's coming this week. Lottery officials say they're ready to meet when Shaw is.
"No lives are on the line here," Bogle said. "That's different than a lot of the cases in my career. This one, though, I think there's going to be a happy ending."
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ok so i think i see the difference with our anonymous ,and usa's. here the person is known to the state as the winner, but identity remains anonymous to the public. seems even the lotto officials are left in the dark in usa's version.
but wait not all lotto is gov ran any more is is it? its private companies. why should there be laws making oyu reveal idientity to a private corp?
sure the statew needs to know, they need to know when u sell a peice of gold worth more than $500, but private companies?
Whomever purchased the ticket came within an hour and 50 minutes of having the ticket expire and watched the annuity value drop by $2.2 million. Had the ticket been validated exactly the same way two weeks after the drawing, there would be no news story. The real question is why wait until the last hour to cash; the identity of the person who actually bought the ticket is not important unless the ticket was stolen or maybe purchased by an illegal alien.
If the Lottery doesn't pay, the law firm will sue and be might be asked to prove how the ticket was purchased. It's very strange that is was necessary for a NY lawyer to sign for the trust when it was made by Iowa law firm.
They declined to identify the gender of the person or whether the individual paid with cash or debit card. (Credit cards may not be used to buy lottery tickets.)
So if they find out it was purchased with a debit card what then.
I see it was a N.Y. lawyer. What if the ticket was purchased in Iowa and mailed to the person in N.Y.?
Might be a touchy area of law if it was purchased by someone other than the owner of the ticket and mailed to the owner of the ticket.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00001302----000-.html
The purchaser is so stupid. All this drama they brought it unto themselves. I always thought a month or two
is reasonable time to wait before claiming jp but 2 hours to the expiry? and then to add to the confusion,
Einstein is trying to hide behind a trust. Yes dummy, that appears very fishy. This is getting more and more
bizarre.
If the state want winners to claim their prizes within two months then they should change the rules. Some states only allow six months.
My bad. I guess what I meant was if you do it within the first two months, not too many eyebrows will be raised.
The ticket owner seems to want privacy and anonymity but now they won't get that. Even people who don't
care for things like these are curious.
This is a very strange story.
We all have to look at it from the winner's point of view, winning a decent size jackpot of this size is a very life changing event and can cause an array of ; should I and shouldn't I; thoughts to occur. It's probably taken them a year to finally grasp the concept of being newly found wealth and get over the jitters of being new money. By being said, it shows that now being able to over come the temptation of claiming for a year that once the funds are deposited into their account they are more likely able to hold back from blowing their millions. Just my opinion.
Roger that. The winner shouldn't have to be jumping through hoops when he's following the rules.
Unless they have evidence of criminal activity and not just the usual weirdoes claiming it's their ticket with no proof, they should give the man his money posthaste.
Yup. As soon as they have an individual claiming to be the owner of the ticket they should write a check just like Texas did when Willis Willis' ticket was presented for payment.
Mmmmmmmm............its good to have drama. Be it a pretty dull world
if everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do. Doting all those i's crossing all those T's. If it get's people's attention, scratching their heads, getting some people pissed off.......... more power to them. 
But you have to admit this is a bit wacky. Almost suspicious given that the person waited until the last day to claim in this manner. It would lead me and most reasonable people to suspect something is amiss in this case. But as I understand it, all the person has to do is come forward to this investigator. He or she will not be unnecessarily exposed to the media. Besides, everyone knows who Brad Duke is and where he lives and he is having no problems. Let me win and I could go either way, claim it anonymously or have a huge press conference with me showing up in a flashy stretch limosine with streamers and signs proclaiming, "JUST WON THE LOTTERY!" When the begging commences, I have an easy solution for all of it..."a polite sorry but check with your bank for that as I am not in that business".....followed by a move to an undisclosed address in the US and frequent travel around the world.
Now come on Powerball, give me some HOPE and drastic CHANGE for my 2012 bank account balance!
Just say NO to DRUGS and Obama in 2012...or just quit drinking the Kool-Aid...it's spiked!
I bet you meant to say audacity?
Maybe the individual was waiting for a divorce to finalize before claiming the prize. He/she wanted to make sure that the other got NOTHING!! Why not wait until the last hour to make the claim. They would throw off the former spouse and the divorce court. The person may have moved to NY during the "waiting period".
Even if it's not true, it makes a good story. LOL!
Yep,thats the word I meant to use.Thanks for the spelling lesson.
Steve Bogle needs a hobby !!!!
But a year though?? Please, NOBODY is going to wait that long to claim a jackpot worth millions. Unless the ticket was misplaced and they finally found it. And you have to think as bad as people need money? Even a millionaire would have never taken that long to claim a prize of that size because HE would even know that overtime the money would depreciate.
This compares to trying to put together a complicated tax return at 6 PM on April 15 and have it post marked and in the mail before midnight. I have no problem with winners wanting to remain anonymous and/or forming trusts, but some states have laws where back ground checks must be made for delinquent taxes and child support before the check can be issued.
Does Iowa run a check on the 76 year-old lawyer from NY who signed the ticket but claims he's not the owner or can they demand the identity of the true ticket owner?
Miss Scarlett did it in the Library with the candlestick.
A winner in New Jersey did that a few years ago just using the post office. He sent his ticket in on the last day by regular mail and it arrived at the lottery office a day late but since it was post marked on the final day, he got his money.
If they look hard enough, they may find one...like maybe he bought a tank of gas and a cup of coffee with his ticket and paid for them all with a credit card..... or maybe he didn't fill out his play slip by hand. There are all kinds of rules like that somewhere on most lottery website that the average player don't pay any attention to and neither do the retailers.
I've seen people fill up their gas tank, pick up a cup of coffee or pack of cigarettes with a lottery ticket and pay for it all with their credit card. And there's all kinds of software to print up play-slips using a computer and printer. A winner in either scenario could lose his prize because he broke a lottery rule and even worst yet, lose the money he spent on the tickets.
Until we learn the real "WHY" the ticket was presented so close to the deadline, we will speculate about the causes.
The mailing issue was mentioned. The ticket was purchased with a first pick on Christmas Day. Maybe it was a Christmas present and was mailed to NY. Maybe it was a Christmas present to someone under 18 years old. I don't know how these possibilities would affect the validity of the win. Or perhaps, the ticket was purchased with a debit card of someone under the age of 18.
We just don't know at this stage why they waited so long, but is raised more curiosity than if it was turned in earlier.
Since you must be 21 in Iowa to purchase lottery tickets,maybe the purchaser bought the ticket for someone that was old enough to purchase a ticket in most states but still to young in Iowa.We should be finding out this week,at least according to the article.
Well, well, well, K-Y Jelly Floyd comes down squarely on the side of Big Brother.
How shocking.
The lottery office needs to pay this person they are always suspicious about things i would've waited that long as well.
Everybody don't have to publicize their name i feel like all states should give you the option as if you want to disclose your name, etc...
Rdgrnr!! what is that suppose to mean K-Y Jelly Floyd
(comes down squarely on the side of BIG BROTHER) Hummmmmmmmmmm!! there is definitely something going on here but once again we might not never know!
What he does with that jelly is his business, louise,
I don't even wanna know. For all I know he uses it to hold down the comb-over on top of a big, fat, bald head with a pony tail. You know how those old hippies are. But I don't wanna get involved in all that mess. And I will not get involved in any questions about NY's liberal marriage laws as it relates to why he chose to live there. That's his business and I'll defend his right to live the lifestyle he chooses. If he wants to wear fishnet stockings and marry some truck driver named Spike it doesn't bother me a bit. That's just the way libs are. And it's perfectly legal (in New York, anyway).
Now as far as coming down on the side of Big Brother, that's always been little floydie's M.O.
He's always on the side of big government over the people no matter what. That's his bread and butter. He figures when the government makes a lot of money, they just might increase his public aid. He loves laws and rules and regulations. And he was undoubtedly the classroom stool pigeon when he was a kid. "Teacher, teacher! Ridge was drinking moonshine on the playground again!" "Teacher! Teacher! Ridge was in the bushes again with Thelma Lou and Elvira May!"
You know the type.
But let's not talk about weirdos tonight.
Let's win that Powerball!
Powerball for me tonite ............. and only my name and town !!!!!!!!!!!!
i have a qp PB w/PP for tonite, rarely play,but got a 2$ tip at the hotel.
at the store i asked mr patel for a new betslip, he said "can't use until sunday".
they were wrapped in cellophane and marked as such,
i said i know i just want to read the back and compare it to the old one.
so he gave me one,nice guy that mr.patel.
it has the new odds chart which i wanted to compare.
other diff. says "increase your winnings"
old one says "multiply your winnings"
neither says anything about an increase or multiplication of losses.
sorry for the long post.
Did it advise you to sign the ticket before handing it to Mr.Patel so he can check it for you?
had to go back and look at it again,it did advise to sign,but oddly enough it did not mention mr. patel.
Well,in my opinion they should warn you about Mr.Patel.He IS famous for cheating people out of jackpots,you know.
It's not a matter of publicizing their names. It's a matter of making themselves known to lottery officials. Their identity would still be kept secret from the public, but I have no problem with lottery officials making it their business to know to whom they're paying out money. The person needs to make themselves known.
If rules were broken, in the claiming of this ticket, then that also needs to be made known. No money should ever be paid out in the event of fraud.
If no rules were broken, then just make your identity known to lottery officials and still keep your anonymity.
Maybe the person is dead??? Maybe someone was holding off on cashing in for some purpose other than just
being a rich PITA with a dry sense of humor. Like someone mentioned....divorce, maybe? Maybe the put a
hit out on the only one they had to share it with and had to let enough time pass to get the heat off.
It could be all kinds of things. If there is something to find I'm sure Mr. Investigator will find it. We should
hear about it soon, stay tuned.
well all this claiming the ticket is a " bearer instrument " and all , is pure hokey then.
if you cant say where you bought it, what time ,what else you bought with it. theres helll to pay.
sure i think the gov needs to know cuz well, the gov are nosey like that. thewy do have video of the person that bought the ticket no doubt. and no doubt would like ot see if THAT person is still alive.
Someone from PA needs to win tonite. I wouldn't wait like this nimrod.
This security guy is an F'ing A$$ho1e. I don't like the SOB. Busy body POS.
yea,seems like he got an agenda.
"i gonna show em im the man"
thats how ya get a big $ contract.
? jarasan, tell us how do you see throught this stuff ?
THIS JUST IN!!!. The Iowa Lottery Commission became suspicious of Steve Bogle and hired a secret covert P.I. to track down his activities.
Turns out Bogle is the lone culprit who actually purchased the winning ticket.
In further developments, Bogle was caught trying to escape into a crude recently invented time machine. Bogle confessed this was an effort to go back to the moment he had purchased the ticket, and substitute a friend who had no connection with the lottery to actually buy the ticket for him.
After questioning his "friend", it turns out he was actually an alien from the Andromeda Galaxy in the planetary system of Nebulous 5. The friends true name is difficult to pronounce in any human language, but roughly translates to "Zeqresyulkiskarpiquveerikrasketulis". NASA and Iowa lottery officials are seeking to deport him back to his home planet on the next Russian rocket mission scheduled for next month.
Bogle meanwhile has pleaded guilty to all charges, and also indicated he had undergone a gender change prior to enlisting in the military, and that his true name was Milissa Queeny. After careful consideration, based upon his flawless record in the past, the compassionate lottery commission decided to give only a 5 year probation to Queeny. Queeny became very emotional and tearfully thanked the commission for their great mercy and promised he would never ever buy a lotto ticket again in the State of Iowa.
I'm confused, stack47, did you mean to type "lump-sum" amount rather than "annuity value" above?
Since so many months went by, I think that only the larger, listed 29-payments annuity amount is able to be collected. Not eligible to receive the 1-payment lump-sum method anymore.
i cant find the page to go to to post play it again tickits
Just from that big smile on his face, I get the feeling Sherlock Holmes a/k/a Steve Bogle a/k/a "a person who does things right"is a real PITA whose loving his 15 minutes of fame right now. Hopefully, after the New York lawyer shows up and explains the circumstances surrounding the Trust, the money will be paid out and the winner can start enjoying their newfound wealth.