ATLANTA, Ga. — A metro Atlanta man opened up a box with a gift he ordered on the Internet to find a treasure of scratch-off lottery tickets.
Darryl Bufford told a local reporter that a UPS box arrived this week with a gift he bought from Macy's.
Bufford set the package aside for a few days and opened it when he noticed some of the tape had been pulled loose.
Inside Bufford found eight stacks of unopened scratch-off lottery tickets.
"My first thought was, 'Merry Christmas," Bufford said.
The Georgia Lottery told Buford there are between 100-500 tickets in each stack. The tickets ranged from $1 to $20.
"Everything that you can imagine would be in a store, that's what was in that package," Bufford said.
Bufford didn't know that until the store activates the tickets they are worthless. Bufford said that he thought he had a fortune, but his integrity was worth even more.
"We looked at it and we decided the right thing was to turn them in," Bufford said.
The Georgia Lottery said they have asked UPS to track down what happened with the tickets.
A UPS spokesman said the most likely explanation is that the material fell from a box on a conveyer belt and a worker mistakenly put it back in the wrong box.
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wow!!! He couldn't keep them anyway, but I think he's entitled to a reward for doing the right thing.
Nice to read a story about folks with integrity.
I hear you but they really were worthless. Not even worth the paper they're printed on. Not sure what his mindset was but i'm thinking he must have known, or enquired after receiving them to see if they could possibly be valid/redeemed. Not taking anything away from him, but lets be real here. Anyone with common sense would know that they would be worthless. Good on him though. Integrity would have been if he found a bag of cash labeled "Georgia Lottery Deposit" or something like that and turned it in. Wait, or would that make him stupid?? hahaha
Hmmm...so some packs fall out of a shipment of tickets to a retailer, and then some UPS worker arbitrarily rips open another box and sticks them in there? Strange...
Or did someone intercept a scratch ticket shipment, grab some, and then someone told him, "yo man, you can't redeem those tickets unless the pack is active, put 'em back!"
Both strange...
I disagree. I'm an avid lottery player (although I don't play scratchoffs at all) and I had no clue they needed to be validated. The general public would have no clue these can be validated. Had you said the person figured that they could be tracked by the serial numbers and that's why they chose to just call it in that may have been believeable.
I thought something was odd also.
Oh come on. Why do you think everything lotto related is scanned, time stamped, serial numbered??? Do you really think if you 'won' a jackpot or some other prize the only thing they check would be the winning numbers?? Certainly you don't believe that. They check the store purchased. Time purchased. Validity of the paper. Serial number. And in some cases even video from the store purchased. Not to mention when you go to collect if its a decent size prize, they question your buying pattern, amount of ticket purchased, when you bought it etc to ensure no shenanigans. As for the scratch off, remember when you buy a ticket, you really dont have to scartch it off (of course you should) but to know if you won, they have to scan it at the register, no matter what the scratch off has on it. ITS ALL ELECTRONIC MY FRIEND. Never forget that!!!
Yea, can't trust those temporary UPS workers. Just look at them on youtube stealing iphones. They probably opened any box that looked like it could hold electronics.
Honesty is always the best policy.
The similarities between this story and "Man has Tennessee Lottery tickets delivered to his doorstep Oct 25, 2012" that shows up on the Related Stories section are amazing.
I always enjoy seeing stories of people with integrity.
Good job Mr. Darryl Bufford. They all are losers anyways
Nice story but 100% of the people would have done the same. There are worthless.
"A UPS spokesman said the most likely explanation is that the material fell from a box on a conveyer belt and a worker mistakenly put it back in the wrong box."
Sounds like the Georgia Lottery needs to use stronger package sealing tape and not the cheap stuff...
Scratch offs are so a windfall for the lottery. They prey on the lowest income folks too. After saying that I do play them occasionally, like after a nice hot on the daily, and only a $10 ticket, it brings me back to earth.