Lottery dream shattered for N.C. couple

May 26, 2007, 10:51 am (26 comments)

North Carolina Lottery

Randolph and Sandra Whitehead planned to get out of their small house, buy a car they could depend on and pay their bills. After all, they had just won $250,000 in the North Carolina lottery.

But those dreams came crashing down when their road to riches took a sudden U-turn.

On May 1, Randolph Whitehead bought a scratch-off ticket at the Rocky Mount BP station on Centura Highway. They had the surprise of their lives.

"Me and her looked at it together," Randolph said. "I put on my glasses. She said, 'That's it, Randolph!'"

The matching numbers of the Lucky Times 7 ticket showed they won $250,000.

"And I held it and I held it and I held it and I held it," Sandra said. "I held the card so tight, I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head."

Afraid to rely on their old car, they took a cab to Raleigh. While at the Lottery Commission on May 2, the ticket was put through a computerized validation process. Nobody told the couple about the validation, Randolph said.

The husband-wife duo had their pictures made with the larger-than-life check. Before the third photo, they got the jolting news: The numbers didn't match.

"I said, 'Why did you take the ticket out of the room? Why didn't you let me know," Randolph said. "When you go to one of these stores, they validate the ticket right in your face."

According to Jerry Carter, director of security for the Lottery Commission, it was "an unfortunate misinterpretation and misunderstanding on the part of the player."

"A validation process takes several minutes," he said.

That's done after the winners fill out all their claims. But the computer scanner detected a discrepancy and did a secondary screening.

"We were able to determine that there was a microscopic piece of latex still on the lucky number area, and our prize analyst scraped that area and we were able to determine that the number 48 is in fact a 46," Carter said.

Cases like this are very rare, he said.

The commission sent the couple a letter: Verifying winning numbers "does not rely on eyesight," it said. The Whiteheads say the commission should have validated the tickets first, before all the photos and festivities.

"It was just snatched," Sandra said.

The lottery commission did agree to pay for the couple's $200 taxi fare.

The Whiteheads have tried to contact the Attorney General to help them in this case.

WRAL

Tags for this story

Other popular tags

Comments

Bradly_60's avatarBradly_60

Wow that would really suck.  Get all the pictures and claim forms filled out thinking you won a pretty good amount of money and a little scratch material remained on the number to make you think you won.  Ouch!

B-rad

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

I really don't know what to say, except "huh?"  What?  This is not like the other story where the couple didn't even submit the ticket for validation.  The Whiteheads were already congratulated and pictures were taken!

 "We were able to determine that there was a microscopic piece of latex still on the lucky number area, and our prize analyst scraped that area and we were able to determine that the number 48 is in fact a 46," Carter said.

Does this mean that nobody can rely on a winning scratch ticket unlesshe owns a microsope?

weshar75's avatarweshar75

Moral of this story is- "SCRATCH THE ENTIRE SCRATCH TICKET!"-weshar75

RJOh's avatarRJOh

After having had several close calls myself, when ever I think I've won a prize that's unusually large I recheck everything twice.  For scratch-offs that means totally cleaning off the latex and checking both the numbers and the text under each number to make sure they both agree.  Since I mostly play jackpot games that means also rechecking the drawing results too.  I've checked my tickets with the wrong drawing results and thought the clerk was pulling a fast one when told my $150 ticket was only worth $5. 

The one time I won $1500, I even checked the lottery website so I knew what the retailer had to do and the retailer also knew before having my ticket verified.  I didn't want one of those "this is the first time for me so I will call the lottery to find out what to do"

Littleoldlady's avatarLittleoldlady

That is why I don't play scratch-offs very often..there is always that "room" for error and cheating..

chasingadream's avatarchasingadream

oooo thats so sad. At least they paid the taxi cab bill

delS

Quote: Originally posted by chasingadream on May 26, 2007

oooo thats so sad. At least they paid the taxi cab bill

These stories are occuring very frequently if you ask me.  Something is amiss!

psykomo's avatarpsykomo

Quote: Originally posted by delS on May 26, 2007

These stories are occuring very frequently if you ask me.  Something is amiss!

another (1) bites dee dust

No Pity!...................again and again and again AHhhhhh it hurt's

Puke............so dam"BAd"

LOL

PSYKOMO

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by delS on May 26, 2007

These stories are occuring very frequently if you ask me.  Something is amiss!

Scratch-off tickets are designed to tease, lots of losing tickets are off by just one digit to encourage players to buy more tickets.  If every player who was off by just one digit was awarded $200 taxi fare, the lottery would go broke, this couple got lucky. 

Both the couple in Florida who hired a lawyer and this couple who's trying to contract the Attorney General want "close" to count as a win and it ain't going to happen.

BBBx3

But there was no cheating, they just got hasty and didn't stratch off the entire ticket.  I feel bad, but it wasn't the lotteries fault.  They shouldn't have given them the big check before it was validated though, duh!

psykomo's avatarpsykomo

Quote: Originally posted by BBBx3 on May 26, 2007

But there was no cheating, they just got hasty and didn't stratch off the entire ticket.  I feel bad, but it wasn't the lotteries fault.  They shouldn't have given them the big check before it was validated though, duh!

ThudSmashWhite BounceGuitarNo Pity!

wellcum the WORLD of SHO business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!PartyPartyParty

Hurray!wellcum to the WORLD of LOTTO business!!!!!!!!!!

welcome 2 USofA

US FlagUS FlagWhite BounceWhite BounceWhite BounceUS FlagUS Flag

IF and only IF YOU R a CITIZEN of the USA.........let D LEADER's

KNOW>>>>>>>>WE DON't NEED ..........BOARDER PROTECTION!

THE more people THEY let into the USA increases D ODD$$$$$$

PSYKOMO will win >>>>JACKPOT$

LOL

PSYKOMO

Kidzmom's avatarKidzmom

The couple did get hasty....BUT....the lottery office should have validated and checked the ticket before all the photos and congratulations..Heck I would have thought I won too...lol

Coin Toss's avatarCoin Toss

It seems stories like this are happening more often.

Sends a real bad message to the playersand doesn't  put the lottery in a good light, not much better than carnival game operators bending the sites on the pellet guns so you can't shoot all of the 3 of Diamonds out.

Lkydeb*594

Quote: Originally posted by Littleoldlady on May 26, 2007

That is why I don't play scratch-offs very often..there is always that "room" for error and cheating..

yep, I totally agree. I never play scratch-offs. 

csfb's avatarcsfb

Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on May 26, 2007

After having had several close calls myself, when ever I think I've won a prize that's unusually large I recheck everything twice.  For scratch-offs that means totally cleaning off the latex and checking both the numbers and the text under each number to make sure they both agree.  Since I mostly play jackpot games that means also rechecking the drawing results too.  I've checked my tickets with the wrong drawing results and thought the clerk was pulling a fast one when told my $150 ticket was only worth $5. 

The one time I won $1500, I even checked the lottery website so I knew what the retailer had to do and the retailer also knew before having my ticket verified.  I didn't want one of those "this is the first time for me so I will call the lottery to find out what to do"

I agree.  I do not know how a scratch ticket looks, but if there is a word under each digit, than that word prevails. 

Which brings to mind this rule on legal construction:  In case of  discrepancy between a digit and a word, the word prevails.  For example, if the printed digit looks like a '6' but under that digit, the word 'eight' is printed, than 'eight' prevails.

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

Yes, csfb, I realize that's the case.  It's like writing a check.  The numbers need to match what is written out beneath "Five hundred sixty-three and 25/100 dollars"  after you fill in  $563.25

But my comment was in response to the fact that nobody seemed to notice they missed a tiny spot until the ticket was put under a microscope.   As others have written, can you imagine getting your photo taken with that big check and celebrating, only to find out you didn't win?  I need to read this article again, since I don't see anything about not matching the word, just about finding a microcopic piece of latex on the number.  One would assume that the Lottery would have scratched off the letters before congratulating the Whiteheads, no???

EDIT:  Okay, just read the article again.  NOTHING about the letters beneath the numbers is mentioned.  It only says:

The commission sent the couple a letter: Verifying winning numbers "does not rely on eyesight," it said.

To me this statement is ridiculous.  What else can we rely on then?  Do we need to own a German Shepherd and teach him to sniff out winning tickets?  If the Lottery Commission wrote "the word underneath the number needs to match the number" it would make a lot more sense, but I see no reference to this at all.  Like the Whiteheads, I would want to be included in the validation process, at least be present. It just doesn't sound kosher to me. You hand your winning  ticket  to someone who then walks to a room in "the back."  If they said "Oh, you got too excited and didn't check carefully" I would agree.  But that's not what this article is saying at all.  They're saying the claims were completed, pictures were taken and it took 2 scannings to verify that one of the numbers wasn't quite right. 

jarasan's avatarjarasan

Is this an alternate reality? You gotta be kidding me.  There is a barcode on the back of the ticket that is scannable ANYWHERE (in the state played).  As a matter of coincidence I walked in behind a 1 million dollar scratcher winner going to play my numbers Wednesday night.  How did we know? Just like every scratchey winner the clerk scrathes off to reveal the number code, which they key and then scan the barcode into the terminal and it verifies the prize with a print out.  The print out said Top Tier Winner must collect at lottery headquarters. Any state that doesn't have this type of system should  not be played. That has to be the most pathetic story I have seen in awhile I don't believe it, someone is pulling our chain. It is the same for a $1 ticket as a $1,000,000.00 ticket.

This the key sentence:

"Afraid to rely on their old car, they took a cab to Raleigh. While at the Lottery Commission on May 2, the ticket was put through a computerized validation process. Nobody told the couple about the validation." Randolph said.

 These people had convinced themselves without checking it at the place they bought it.  This is called "Winning the lottery Munchausen by proxy syndrome" 

This story is fabricated, made-up slow news night news, another school project. If not fake, those  lottery retailers and officials should be fired and investigated for incompetence, stupidity, fraud and keystone syndrome.  I would also demand a top to bottom evaluation of the entire lottery organization, administration, and board by a independent third party auditor/accountant.  The whole thing just sounds bad for the NC lottery, there is an agenda in there somwhere by someone.

This would never happen in MD., DC, VA.

LOL jarasan

Here they are the NC lottery guys .

P.S. Ask me how I really feel.

emilyg's avataremilyg

Quote: Originally posted by BBBx3 on May 26, 2007

But there was no cheating, they just got hasty and didn't stratch off the entire ticket.  I feel bad, but it wasn't the lotteries fault.  They shouldn't have given them the big check before it was validated though, duh!

I agree. 

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

Quote: Originally posted by justxploring on May 27, 2007

Yes, csfb, I realize that's the case.  It's like writing a check.  The numbers need to match what is written out beneath "Five hundred sixty-three and 25/100 dollars"  after you fill in  $563.25

But my comment was in response to the fact that nobody seemed to notice they missed a tiny spot until the ticket was put under a microscope.   As others have written, can you imagine getting your photo taken with that big check and celebrating, only to find out you didn't win?  I need to read this article again, since I don't see anything about not matching the word, just about finding a microcopic piece of latex on the number.  One would assume that the Lottery would have scratched off the letters before congratulating the Whiteheads, no???

EDIT:  Okay, just read the article again.  NOTHING about the letters beneath the numbers is mentioned.  It only says:

The commission sent the couple a letter: Verifying winning numbers "does not rely on eyesight," it said.

To me this statement is ridiculous.  What else can we rely on then?  Do we need to own a German Shepherd and teach him to sniff out winning tickets?  If the Lottery Commission wrote "the word underneath the number needs to match the number" it would make a lot more sense, but I see no reference to this at all.  Like the Whiteheads, I would want to be included in the validation process, at least be present. It just doesn't sound kosher to me. You hand your winning  ticket  to someone who then walks to a room in "the back."  If they said "Oh, you got too excited and didn't check carefully" I would agree.  But that's not what this article is saying at all.  They're saying the claims were completed, pictures were taken and it took 2 scannings to verify that one of the numbers wasn't quite right. 

The article doesn't say anything about looking at the ticket with a microsope, though that would be a pretty obvious, and perhas the first, forensic technique in the event that there is any question about the authenticity of the ticket. My guess would be that when the guy said there was a "microscopic" piece he simply meant it was a very small piece. As far as the statement about not relying on eyesight, the validation process is to make sure that what looks like a winning ticket really is a winning ticket, and that's done by checking the barcode to see if that ticket is listed as a winner in the official database.  There's nothing complex or ridiculous about it, and there's no reason that players should be involved in the lottery's standard security procedures. The article also says clearly that the first scan indicated a problem. The second was simply to confirm that the first one was accurate, and probably isn't any different than sometimes having to swipe your credit card twice to have it read correctly.

These people didn't scratch off the concealing layer enough to properly read the ticket, and that's all there is to it. Other than the lottery officials congratulating them before the validation process was completed this isn't any different than checking the winning numbers in the newspaper without your glasses andmistaking one number for another.

LckyLary

I am guessing this is what happened, the barcode when read gave a different string of numbers than under the barcode. The ticket agent probably punched them in manually and not scanned the barcode itself but the Lottery HQ did. I am assuming that is where the numbers didn't match? If it was in the play area itself then why didn't this come up when the agent scanned it??? I must be missing something. I do know that a lot of times they will put a number that looks almost like a winning number, i.e. if it says "46" in Your #s there's a spot that says "48" over a big amount so you get all excited when you start scratching it and you think it's going to be 46. If the ticket agent scanned the barcode and it said it was valid then there is something seriously wrong and everyone should boycott all scrach games unless they get paid what they should have.

LckyLary

UPDATE: I have found a video about this story at mms://wm.wfmy.gannett.edgestreams.net/news/052507_lottery_wfmy1.wmv and it turns out that there is NO barcode to scan in and the ticket they were showing on the News didn't have a "46" or "48" over the $250K so it must have been a different ticket being shown. Anyway it's possible in the string of #s if they are OCRed or hand-entered could turn a 6 into an 8 (but it would be extremely rare that it also matched a $250K winner in the database), but the report sounds like it was in the main scratch area (Your Numbers/Winning Numbers) - if so then how on God's Earth did it pass the "in your face" store validation?? Unless the agent didn't actually type in the serial #?? That would be very stupid, usually they make sure they do.

percygrinder's avatarpercygrinder

Thats really sad. I think the lottery comp should be pay them more because they should have mad sure before they take the people pictures. That must be really embarassing. They should be thought a lesson also.

tntea's avatartntea

lay away from the scratchers...

I sold 12 $10 tickets yesterday to one guy and he received NOTHING.. not even a ticket...

That is bad..  $120 in the trash in less than 20 minutes

stavros's avatarstavros

Did they actually have the ticket validated in the store?  It sounded to me that they just hopped in a cab and went to the Lottery Commission office.

DoubleDown

The scanned bar code trumps everything, as we have seen with the Florida snafu.

 

The lottery HQ should have verified before posing these people with the big check.

 Jarasan is right, the NC lottery operates like the Keystone Kops...

 

Stooges

spy153's avatarspy153

Quote: Originally posted by Littleoldlady on May 26, 2007

That is why I don't play scratch-offs very often..there is always that "room" for error and cheating..

Me too, I prefer not to fool with them. But my hubby.... Oh baby! That's a different story.

End of comments
Subscribe to this news story
Guest