Unsuspecting winner finds the right kind of ticket sitting on his dashboard
By Kate Northrop
GRANITE FALLS, Wash. — While many loathe the thought of discovering a ticket sitting on the car windshield, a forgotten lottery ticket worth $2 million sitting on his dashboard turned out to be an early holiday present for one Washington man.
A winning lottery ticket worth $2 million went unnoticed for a month as it sat undisturbed on a Granite Falls man's dashboard until he decided to clean out his car.
The unsuspecting lottery player bought a Powerball ticket on Sat., Nov. 6 for that night's drawing from the IGA grocery store on Granite Avenue in Granite Falls. He put it on his car's dashboard, where it would sit for an entire month.
Then, the anonymous winner decided that now was as good of a time as ever to clean out the car. The ticket must have been kept hidden by the "junk" apparently collecting on his dashboard, which he had begun to toss out.
Thankfully, the ticket did not find its way into the trash bin, rather it was discovered to be a big winner. And while the ticket did not match all six numbers — 8, 30, 48, 57, 64 and Powerball 9 — to win the $143.7 million jackpot, it did earn him a nice $2 million prize.
According to the Washington Lottery, he shared the news with his father first before visiting the Lottery's Everett regional office to claim his prize. With the winnings, he plans to invest in a couple of rental properties.
I think the "junk" protected the ticket. I left a loser tic on my dash just to see what the sun would do to it.
It was unreadable in about ten days.
One man's junk is another man's treasure!
Now you see the high number of winning tickets that go unclaimed.
I am hoping for a $2 million winner myself on Wednesday night!-weshar75
People always make up stories when they win... and people believe it... when i win i can't wait to make up a nice storie..
Check with Todd. He can make up a good one for ya.
He once regaled us with a tale of the utter horror of being struck by lightning at the same moment you're being bitten by a shark. That one still cracks me up.
The same thing I was thinking. Each time there this dramatic story. Geesh!
What is it with these stories. Seem like every big winner
either finds a winning ticket, what they had purchased and threw
away or finds one someone else threw away.
Im going to buy my next one and just keep it laying around, for months before I check it out, see if that will flow 💰 to me.
Whoa! I guess I missed a lot over the last 7 years!
I take a short break, come back, and Todd's a dadgum movie star!
This is exactly why I like online subscriptions. The UK National Lottery has one of the best online services. Players can pay by direct debit and prize money is automatically credited to the same account. Unless you win a major prize or jackpot, then the lottery contacts the lucky winner with the good news and the claims process begins.
It's basically heresay unless we can authenticate the story. The media strategically. inserts/omits facts based on what will sell.
Wait, you're saying the lottery is making up the winner's story about leaving the winning ticket on his car's dashboard? Seems like a very oddly specific thing for them to make up. I don't think the story will sell thousands of lottery tickets. If they were to make up stories to generate interest and sales, I don't think this is the one they would run with.
Well, I can say from the last 4 months of working in a little c-store that sells lottery tickets, that people do hang on their tickets without checking them.
It's not uncommon for someone to come in with a wad of various tickets for me to check.
As for me, I'm checking mine as soon as I can.
An example of divine intervention:
God, I stand in financial need, but your word declares that you are an ever-present help in time of need (Psalm 46:1). I thank you that you are present and that you will provide me with the financial resources that I need to have stability.
I don't know about other states, but in Texas I think the winning ticket must be signed. So, no, that wouldn't work.
You could take a picture of someone elses ticket and try to claim you're the winner. Then the real winner comes forward to claim. Rutroh!
If you have a copy of the front/back of the complete ticket that might work. A copy of only the front showing the numbers won't work.
I'm not familiar with the process, so I'm guessing that when one goes to lottery HQ. There is someone there that asks questions about the winner. And the winner/ticket holder can make up any scenerio they choose. Example I got the ticket in a birthday card, my cousin gave it to me, I lost/found the ticket. I'll be working on my Doozey of a story to tell
It's a very common thing for people to put a lottery ticket in their car and forget all about it.
My nephew threw one in the cup holder on the console of his car. Fortunately for him he saw it the day after he bought it. Good thing he did.. it was a $17,000 winner.
A guy in Connecticut put a winning one million dollar Connecticut Superdraw raffle ticket in his wallet and forgot about it. He cleaned out his wall two months after the drawing and found out he won a million dollars. G5
I suppose you could make up a crazy story when claiming a prize, but that might not be a great idea. If you start making stuff up and then start contradicting your own story, you might raise suspicions. That's how they caught Eddie Tipton. It's all fun and games until you start lying to the people who were set to give you a huge payout.
Better to be honest and go have fun with your new wealth.
"in Texas I think the winning ticket must be signed."
It might be hard to sign a ticket that went through the washing machine, but you can definitely sign a ticket that has been faded because of heat. The problem will be whether or not they'd accept a ticket that's not completely legible (I've never felt the need to read the detailed rules that presumably cover damaged tickets). Out of curiosity I heated the back of an old ticket to see what happened. The front went black very easily, but the pre-printed stuff on the back remained completely legible, and AFAIK the back always has at least one serial number on it. That may not identify the exact ticket, but if they're tracking what tickets are printed on a roll of paper they can probably narrow it down to a fairly small number of possible tickets. The front of NY tickets now say "ticket is required to claim a prize" but at one time NY had a procedure for claiming a prize without the ticket and I'm pretty sure I read about a few people collecting based on convincing evidence. Besides convincing evidence there was a fee, and the prizes weren't paid until the end of the usual 1 year claim period. The upshot is that there's a very good chance the lottery could identified some badly damaged tickets as winners, so the question is whether they want to pay the prize or do something else with the money.
Here's a picture showing a bit of the front and the serial number on the back.
I suspect too that this is a fake story. Too many of these lately showing up on here.
I would be more likely to believe that this winner did just as they said. After all, how many of us know friends, associates or relatives who put stuff on their dashboard and leave there for weeks or months ? Especially those that use their vehicle as a portable office.
Yes, there could be a few that sensationalize their stories to embellish the claim....But come awwwwn folks, of the few stories that have a smidge of drama, how many different winners actually do not ?? I am going with "most" for an answer to that question.
Concocting a story on top of the 7 figure win ?? Possibly, but most people have better things to do. After all, its not a
politician or an actor needing attention.
Our tix have barcodes (which I assume is true for all if not most states). So if that barcode can't be scanned, which is how I can tell if a ticket is payable, then I can't pay out money. I suppose on a jackpot winning ticket (or any winning ticket) the folks in Austin might figure it out. But, to me, why treat something that potentially is worth millions like trash?
I agree with you 100%. There is no need for the lottery to make up any story because the lottery generates millions of dollars in sales without any of these stories. Most people who play the lottery don't even read these stories. As for me, I love reading these lottery winner stories.
The lottery doesn't fabricate the stories, the winners do to make themselves somewhat of a celebrity which is odd because most want to keep it unknown.