Everybody's got a story about the one that got away, but Walid Aboroomi's tale of loss and deprivation can bring tears to anyone who favors simple games of chance and the specter of quick riches.
Aboroomi has owned the BP service station and convenience store on Cross Creek Boulevard for six months, and on the night of May 28, he felt lucky. He noticed the time: 7:15 p.m.; a glimpse of a license plate in the parking lot, 715. And most importantly, his birthday: July 15.
"Everything was 715," he said. "It was blowing my brain."
Something about this seemed eerily familiar, too.
In 2007, Aboroomi won a Pick 3 lottery in Virginia for $100,000 after buying nearly 200 tickets with 715 as the winning number.
He felt the same sort of luck on May 28, he said.
The time was right, he said, to make a play.
"At times," said the 50-year-old Israeli immigrant who has been in the United States for 27 years, "you just feel lucky."
So when customers cleared out, he started printing out Cash 3 tickets with 715 as the number of choice.
He ended up buying 184 of them, at $1 each, stopping only when a customer came in.
The next day, another customer showed up and told him he thought Aboroomi's numbers had come up the night before. The shopkeeper checked, and 715 indeed had been drawn. In that order. With each ticket worth $500, that was a $92,000 windfall.
Then, his luck ran out.
He looked for the tickets. They were nowhere to be found.
He looked in the garbage. Not there. Checked under a loose countertop. Not there. Under carpets. Not there. In the bathroom. Not there. He asked his wife and children. Nope.
Aboroomi went to the big trash container outside the store and dove in. Nothing.
He called his garbage hauler, saying he had lost a ring, and found out that all the trash from that location goes to an incinerator.
"I searched every place," he said. "Finally, I gave up. I was crying, crying like a baby."
He punched out a ticket from the lottery machine in his store showing 184 tickets were printed out from that machine on that date. He said the store's surveillance system probably shows him making the purchases, but that doesn't go far with state lottery officials.
He called the Florida Lottery and was told that to make a claim, he must have the tickets, like 2,827 other people who picked 715 and claimed a prize from that drawing. The payout for that drawing totaled $449,685, state lottery officials said.
Aboroomi doesn't appear to be bitter. He can't complain. He's been a frequent lottery player and a big winner.
He was featured in a 2007 Washington Post article that said after Aboroomi won a $100,000 Pick 3 prize, he spent $17,000 on a new diamond ring for his fiancee and made donations to local churches and homeless shelters. Less than a year earlier, he won $71,000 after buying 162 Pick 3 tickets with, that's right, the 715 number.
The story said Aboroomi always plays his birthday numbers and checks the lottery websites to see when they last came in. If it's been awhile, he buys a ton of tickets.
That's not his only win. In 2005, he won $1 million playing the Virginia Million Dollar Madness scratch-off game, the story said, and he won $500,000 in a scratch-off jackpot in fall 2004.
Aboroomi said even with his lost tickets, he realizes how lucky he's been.
"Yeah," he said, "I'm not hungry."
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I think he is looking too hard. 184 tickets is a lot of paper. I hope he does find it before the 180 days expire.
That's a hard pill to swallow.
I wonder where he set all those tickets after he printed them out? I would think think it would be hard to misplace that many tickets.
Personally, I would not have gone public with this story. I would have quietly gone to the lottery and told them about it -- and while continuing to search for the tickets, see if someone shows up to claim the prize.
I guess Florida allows store owners and their employees to buy tickets at their place of work.
You can buy them here too as owner/employees of the store you work at as well
how do you misplace 184 lottery tickets? He must have a junky home or business if he can misplace that many tickets. I keep mine in my pockets but 184 it would be hard not to not see all those tickets placed somewhere
I was thinking along those lines as I was reading the story and then I read your post ... being that he sells lottery tickets and if he has a clean record with the lottery, they might have worked with him ... and still might.
However, they probably must have the tickets to keep it proper and "fair" to other players ... but there are exceptions made at times. He might have some luck in that regard.
If none of the tickets are ever cashed ... what are the odds that no one would ever cash all those tickets and also they were printed in his store ... I guess it depends on the lottery and if they might cut him a break.
I wonder if they were stolen ... he did say a customer walked into the store but you would think he would have noticed his tickets missing in that short time ... maybe there will be a followup story.
Perhaps they will turn up ... I misplaced a few tickets one time but not a pile of tickets like that ... they have to be around but I would think by now he has moved and checked everything several times. It took me several days hunting around to find my tickets ... I had "hidden" them under a box.
...
hola.
ICAM... (i couldn't agree more with Todd.)
I would have done the same thing.
SMH @ this story. smh.
Adios.
He worries too much or he seeks attention. Perhaps we will read Pt 2 soon enough- " l found my tickets! "
I don't know, but he'll probably find them in the last place that he looks...
184 lines is $184. How do you bet all those lines and not check the results immediately? Maybe he prefers to not check his tickets to delay the disappointment of losing
Raven62, of course "the last place he looks" will end it. For either good or ill. LOL
Yea I agree, something strange here.....
I would still check the camera to see what i did with the tickets. They usually have several around the store.
I agree, 184 tickets would make a stack a couple inches high unless he printed 5 or 10 lines per ticket. I hope he had surveillance cameras inside his store to see if he put them away somewhere, or if someone stole them.
His looking for sympathy...
l tell you...
Does Florida have a player registration card system?
Wait...He lost how many tickets?? 184? Overnight?
My guess...someone stole them. Hopefully it's on the store cameras.
"Honey, did you see my stack of 184 lottery tickets that I bought last night? I can't find them!!!!
"No I didn't. What did they look like?"
"I promise I never saw nothing".
News Update: In a related story, Florida wife leaves man who lost $92,000 worth of lottery tickets! She is said to be very unhappy and suicidal. Be on the lookout!!!
You would think, however finding the Tickets won't end it...
I agree that he should look at the in store camera that may trigger his memory where he put them.........he may have put them under the drawer in the cash register or in the console in his vehicle or glove compartment of his vehicle....they gotta be somewhere...start at one end of the store to the other....
Beaudad
At times it's not that easy B. I recall reading awhile back about a jackpot winner leaving his briefcase with hundreds of thousands of dollars behind a dumpster while taking a leak * l think... & calling the cops because he thought someone had robbed him in this club he was at . Apparently- he was pretty loaded to have forgotten to keep an eye on his stash.- Anyone else remember this story?
Jack won $315 million and it ruined his family. He said, "I wish I had torn up that ticket". He warns other winners to not give any money away because once you start giving it away then everybody expects more from you. You are called a soft touch. When you run out of money then the beggars become vicious and angry toward you.
Jack should have spent his money on Professionals such as a psychiatrist, neuropsychiatrist, private eyes, investment counselors, insurance to cover lawsuits and kidnap/ransom and more.
FOX BREAKING NEWS: FLORIDA WIFE WHO'S HUSBAND LOST $92,000 WORTH LOTTERY TICKETS HAS RETURNED HOME AND IS SAFE AND SOUND. SHE IS NO LONGER SUICIDAL AND HAS FORGIVEN HER HUSBAND. SHE RETURNED WITH A NEW ATTITUDE AND A BRAND NEW CAR!
Lottery tickets still have not been found. Still no suspects. The search goes on. Stay tuned to Fox for latest BREAKING NEWS!!!
Guys will get this, especially guys married to or living with neat freaks, and it's not just lotto tickets.
There is no doubt in my mind that some scientist or researcher had found perhaps a cure to a disease or diseases or in fact cracked the lottery code.
Then one day his wife had 'the girls coming over' and tidied up and pitched it all.
"Honey did you see a stack of papers?" (or lottery tickets)
"Oh I tossed them and the garbage men already came by".
This is why I only play by subscription, no tickets to loose!
Yeah that's him!
Yup Scary
Maybe he has a forgetful memory and put them in one of his hiding places?
Maybe this is Karma. You know what they say about Karma, it is a b.......
I have a sneaking suspicion that this store owner is a compulsive gambler and this pick 3 purchase wasn't the only bet he made that day. If he made multiple large bets that day, I could see how he could have misplaced some of his tickets.
The only logical scenario is that this store owner not only played Pick3 but many other games that day as well. At that rate I could see how he "misplaced" some of his tickets....plus I doubt he organized them with any paper clips.
Maybe he should try hypnosis, it might help to jar his memory and take him back to where he put those little gems!
Yup, you may have something there! and worse case scenario...someone knows his hiding places of his tickets
Just knowing $92,000 is yours makes it hard to find something you lost. It was either in a hiding spot or a work employee stole it. hmmm I'm think he probably just hid it really well. He's got 180 to look for it though.
"Ma'am, just one more thing".
In the article it say:
He was featured in a 2007 Washington Post article that said after Aboroomi won a $100,000 Pick 3 prize, he spent $17,000 on a new diamond ring for his fiancee and made donations to local churches and homeless shelters. Less than a year earlier, he won $71,000 after buying 162 Pick 3 tickets with, that's right, the 715 number.
The article states that this man has a fiancee back in 2007. It's possible that she could now be his wife. Is it unreasonable to think that the fiancee or wife could have taken the lottery tickets?
Here is another suspect I'd look at to see if he took the tickets. The article states:
The next day, another customer showed up and told him he thought Aboroomi's numbers had come up the night before. The shopkeeper checked, and 715 indeed had been drawn. In that order. With each ticket worth $500, that was a $92,000 windfall.
So we have a customer who knows he plays those 7-1-5 numbers. Could he have taken the lottery tickets?
Were there employees working that day who could have taken the lottery tickets?
Todd, please keep us posted on this one!
What a freaking idiot
It behooves me of people who lose winning lottery tickets,when I buy a ticket I treat it like it is the winning ticket before the numbers are even drawn.How do u lose 184 tickets.
157 for me and I WILL NOT lose my tickets.
That's sick. $92k....gone.
Imagine if he had spent $1,000.00 that day on Cash-3 with his numbers? That's over $500K. To lose that kind of payout would drive a person insane.
The story said he printed out 184 tickets and stopped only when customers came in, could someone also have played lottery and he mistakely gave them some of his tickets when he gave them their tickets?
Sure, but it's unlikely that customer could cash them without being found out. Even if he just cashed one at different grocery stores ever month, the lottery would know where the tickets were printed, and they'd check the security tape to try to identify the person cashing them.
If your scenario did happen, the smart thing would be for that customer to come forward and return them, get the money he spent back, and hope for a nice little reward.