A Pasco, Washington, man is making plans for his new restaurant after winning $180,000 in the Hit 5 lottery game.
But he came close to losing the winning ticket.
He bought his Hit 5 ticket at the Tesoro at 1212 N. Fourth Ave. in Pasco, Washington, for the drawing on Nov. 22.
A few days later he returned to the gas station to check his ticket.
When he heard he had a winning ticket — splitting a $360,000 prize with the buyer of a second winning ticket — his first thought was to share the good news with his wife.
But when he reached her, he did not have a ticket to show her. He had left it at the gas station.
"It felt like it took them forever to find it," he said. "But when they finally did, it was the best moment. I signed it immediately and went straight home."
He and his wife have recently purchased a restaurant in the Tri-Cities, but have not been able to afford a sign for it yet.
Neither the name of the winner nor his restaurant were released by the Washington Lottery.
The winner plans to pay off debt from purchasing the restaurant and then buy a new sign to replace the plastic banner that now hangs over the restaurant.
This morning I went to the local CVS store to mail a letter, on the ground below the mailbox I found a Power Ball ticket. It was in good shape so I didn't pay attention to the date. When I got home I checked the date... It was from August 22, 2012. LOL. As it turns out it wasn't a winner anyway. Would have been a bummer to find out it was a winner but has long since expired.
In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson!
Took them forever to find it, my ....
Most reporters should ask ALOT of questions for any story. What's the MISSING questions in this story?
WHAT took the store so LONG? Where did they find it? Was it in the trash? How did they KNOW where to look?
Something doesn't add up here
just glad the customer got the ticket back and can do positive things with it- Make his Restaurant GREAT AGAIN!! (LOL!!)
Journalism is lacking these days. The article looks to be mostly a rewrite of the Washington Lottery press release. Compare newspaper articles from 40+ years ago to now. Lots of detail, even for mundane incidents, was common. Today, one or two short paragraphs often passes as a news article. Most news gathering organizations have had their staffs gutted, so it's often a wonder any articles of substance are published.
Also, articles are often full of typos, repeated paragraphs (not always AP sourced either; seen local articles like that too!), articles with extraneous text (ie. random blurb from a copy and paste gone wrong or outright bad layout work), or worse of all, obvious typos in the article title itself (surprising common even for newspaper websites).
$135K or so after taxes isn't much for renovations. Wouldn't surprise me, given the details provided (ie. couldn't afford a proper sign), if even after putting their winnings towards it, they're still in debt or at least very close to the financial edge. Hopefully, it all works out for the winner.
He said "it felt like it took forever to find the ticket"! It may have been about 30 seconds. If I lost a winning ticket every second would feel that way. It doesn't mean anything nefarious was going on. Congratulations to the winner and best wishes on his new restaurant.
PASCO? LOL. He is lucky somebody saved the ticket for him. Isn't that what happened? I live close to Pasco. Buy food there.