A man who claims he purchased the winning $63 million SuperLotto Plus ticket purchased in Chatsworth has taken legal action to be declared the winner as lottery officials continue their search for a last-minute winner.
The winning ticket for the Aug. 8 drawing was sold at the 7-Eleven store located at 20871 Lassen Street and whoever bought that ticket has 180 days to claim their prize, Lottery Post reported.
The ticket matched all of the winning numbers: 1, 16, 30, 33, and 46, with Mega number 24.
If no one comes forward with the winning ticket by 5 p.m. Thursday, the winnings will be forfeited and redirected to California public schools, according to the news release.
Meanwhile, a Los Angeles County man said he has the winning ticket and has already turned it in to lottery officials who have rejected it as being "too damaged to be reconstructed."
In papers filed Wednesday morning in Los Angeles County Superior Court, plaintiff Brandy Milliner said he already submitted the winning SuperLotto Plus ticket to lottery officials, and even received a congratulatory letter.
However, Milliner said the lottery office later reneged on his payment. In January, they sent him a second letter informing him that a review of the ticket found it "too damaged to be reconstructed."
Milliner is now asking a judge to declare him the winner of the jackpot.
The lawsuit comes as the California Lottery amps up its public outreach efforts to find the ticket-holder before a 5 p.m. deadline Thursday. After that, the winner forfeits the prize and the $63 million goes into the state's education fund.
Lottery officials have insisted that nobody has claimed the jackpot.
On Wednesday afternoon, lottery officials said they were reviewing the matter.
"The last-minute timing of this is suspicious," said lottery spokesman Russ Lopez. "I am not saying it's not real."
The winning ticket was sold Aug. 8 at a 7-Eleven store at 20871 Lassen St. in Chatsworth. The winning numbers are 1, 16, 30, 33, and 46, with Mega number 24.
In his lawsuit, Milliner claims he presented the ticket to the California State Lottery Commission within the claim period. The commission then sent him a letter congratulating him, and saying he would receive a check in six to eight weeks.
Milliner claims that even though officials told him the ticket was too damaged to be reconstructed, they have refused to return it to him despite repeated demands. He insists that they have destroyed the ticket, which is the reason they can't return it.
Lopez said it is standard procedure for the lottery to send congratulatory letters to all winners claiming a prize. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that they have won.
An investigation performed by a team of former law enforcement and security officials is immediately launched into any claims made by potential winners.
A win is only secured after the investigation proves the ticket holder was the lawful winner, Lopez said.
Lopez said lottery officials were "taken aback" by the lawsuit and have not received any documents regarding a legal claim.
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He can't win this, the state is salivating over the win.
The state doesn't pay taxes on the win...isn't that nice ?
Is there video of him buying tix at the right time ?
Weird...the upper part of the ticket looks like the face of an animal...anyone else see that ?
I would think the lottery would have some kind of document retention policy under which they would hold on to all paper documents (including this damaged ticket) for a certain length of time before scanning/destroying them. Strange that the lottery would immediately destroy paper documents.
I've had lottery tickets end up looking like after setting on a hot dash board in my truck but I would think with the paper roll numbers still in tack and tests for heat sensitive paper they could come up with a better explanation.
Lol all of em are criminals cheers guys :DDDD
I mean all the officials of lottery are paid criminals
Looking at that ticket, there's no way he can win this. The exception being, they could verify the date/time with camera footage. Sad. Interesting. WTF did he do to the ticket?! They tell you to keep those things in safe places.
His numbers are out of order, is that possible?
It is unfortunate for the claimant. I read elsewhere on here, that he was a prisoner of some sort.
Anyway, it looks like the ticket was in his fading jeans, and got the ticket all messed up.
I don't know. I just dont know. If the ticket is not awarded, there is going to be some lotto player
in need of psychiatric help. And, rightfully so, even though they should have taken better care of their ticket.
TO ALL LOTTO PLAYERS:
Don't let the above scenario happen to you. Always take care of your tickets. Don't just shove them into your pockets.
We should all see from this, that it will cause a lot of heart ache. But, can any of us really tell, if the ticket is valid, AND if the claimant is really telling us the truth?
Whenever I get my tickets, I put them in my lotto envelope. That way, they never get lost, and are fairly well protected.
Most unfortunate situation.
I am really sorry if the claimant does not get his prize. That's 60 million+. I am so sorry for them, if the California Lotto's final word on this situation is "no go".
As the old Peter, Paul and Mary song would go 'when will they ever learn?'
Don't blame the CA lottery one bit; looks like it was left on a dashboard or some other area of high heat.
He doesn't deserve one thin dime and to wait this long? Something is fishy here.
I agree, but also agree with Mr. Todd who's just stated that he finds it unusual that the Calif. Lottery would immediately destroy the ticket that they do now have.
Still, to the claimant: Why did you wait so doggone long?
I would have been shaking, trembling with fear with that ticket in my possession, keeping it in pristine shape, until I was to get my check. But look at the doggone thing now. Looks like it came out of someone's poop shute.
I am truly disturbed about this situation, today. And, I don't know whom I should believe.
I wish ALL people would just do the right thing. And to do it when they should do it.
I saw that, too! I havent seen a ticket with out of order numbers. Ive never played SuperLotto Plus, so I dont know if maybe their tickets can do that, but that did strike me as odd that the 33 was before the 30.
At least with the " Shroud of Turin" you can make out a shape - this is plain guesswork .With our State fiscal Budget crisis- I seriously doubt he will get a penny. The State lottery want you to produce a ticket if you claim you won, not something that requires carbon dating. Sorry Sir.
I've been playing the Mega Millions and the Powerball game for years now and never had a lottery ticket in such bad shape. I seen some red serial numbers on this ticket that were backwards, so I took a mirror and could read 863255934. I don't know if these numbers can be traced back to the winning ticket but it's just an idea. Well, in just a few hours, it looks like the schools of California will win on this one. Personally, I think that the jackpot of some $63 million should have been put back into the SuperLotto Plus game.
Are these numbers supposed to be his chosen numbers or a Quick Pick ??? Both types would have been printed out in numerical order. Right ??
In any case, this ticket is too damaged to reconstruct. He shouldn't waste attorneys' fees trying to fight this losing battle.
What about reading the red imprint numbers. Also, I keep a few tickets for several months in a lottery folder and several of them have turned black and I could not figure out how? Kept in a drawer, mysterious
Why his numbers are not in order? Hum
If the picture is that of his actual ticket, I would think those numbers would be enough for the lottery to know if this was the winning ticket. The picture is taken from the back side of the ticket and the out of order numbers were printed on the ticket by hand. At this point I'm inclined to believe the guy may be trying to scam the CA lottery. In DE our tickets have the numbers printed on them as numbers about midway on the ticket and then have the numbers printed in bar code at the bottom. If the bottom of the ticket with the bar code gets messed up or cut off during printing, the clerk can later type in the actual numbers to validate a ticket. I've had this happen a few times over the years.
Since the ticket is damaged. There is one thing not damage on the ticket & It's on two places on the ticket. All lottery office headquarter keep a ledger on winning tickets. If you were doing a audit on that lottery. The lottery all way knows what tickets are sold , ship out to retailers etc. What left in ticket in any game. What I can see twice on this ticket is in red, the serial number in the middle of the ticket & the serial number at the bottom of the ticket. The lottery Knows exactly which serial numbers out of that store was actual winners. Check the ticket# next to numbers sold in that store. If this person ticket # don't line up with the numbers in the ledger for that store it not valid. case close. The thing I hadn't heard of before is the Lottery sending you a congratulation letter. Any time I visited one to get paid, they said congratulation , ask if you mind having your picture taken. Take the picture with you holding this off size check with the name of the game you win and the amount you win.
That is one awful fake job.
ok this is easy... fraud ticket... look at sequence of numbers in real tickets below... scam boy has sequence out of order... nice try dumbsh_t...
Ay Dios Mio! I see Our Lady of Guadalupe!
Seriously, are they sure this nut job isn't the same one who claims that the Robinson's ($328M Powerball winners) daughter Tiffani is going to "murry' his illiterate, incarcerated, moron self? Oh, that's right, this guy's name is Brandy (???). When the judge finds for the defendant (the CA Lottery), I hope he tacks on 12 months in County for fraud on this scammer. What an absolute WASTE of the courts time and the people of California's tax dollars.
Either way: Mr Fantasy has 18 mins left on the clock to produce the Real ticket.
It is now after 5:00 PM Pacific Time.
Case closed. Ticket is no longer valid.
Move along folks...nothing to see here.
Know what's sad? It takes the Superlotto Plus jackpot months to get to $63 mil..only to read that it went unclaimed.
That is pretty sad especially for a state lotto game.
I have my doubts about this guy. One of the first actions taken by a jackpot winner is too make copies of the ticket and to put purchased tickets in a secure place where the tickets will not be damaged prior to the drawings. Unless the 7-11 has video footage of the guy purchasing the ticket, he is up the creek without a paddle and sinking fast!
Ah, lottery gods, I would have thoroughly welcomed these monies, too!
It's also strange that the lottery would keep a frozen alien in their freezer.
Do you know of any credible report that they've done either of those things?