Finders keepers.
That's the word from the Hoosier Lottery after a winning ticket worth $100,000 purchased in Shelbyville was tossed in the trash, then plucked out by a luckier person.
"If I drop $100,000 in the street and walk away and the next person picks it up, it's their money," Ellen Corcella, the lottery's security director, said Wednesday.
The lottery paid the winnings, minus taxes, to Kerry Jeremiah, a Shelbyville woman who took the "Hold 'em Poker" ticket to the lottery's Downtown Indianapolis headquarters Feb. 10.
Jeremiah's luck is someone else's big loss. Two other people shelled out $5 for the winning scratch-off ticket Feb. 8 at the Chaperrel Café.
They asked a store clerk to check whether they had a $40 winner, Corcella said -- which they didn't. The clerk didn't check for any other amounts, the security director said.
Told the ticket wasn't a winner, the buyers pitched it in a store wastebasket.
That's where Jeremiah spotted the ticket and asked for it, saying she would use it to enter the lottery's second-chance consolation prize, Corcella said.
"They handed it to her and said, with their blessings, take it," said Corcella.
No one had appealed the lottery's decision as of Wednesday. The café's owner, Shirley Bailey, declined comment.
>Told the ticket wasn't a winner, the buyers pitched it in a store wastebasket.
This is different than looking at the ticket yourself and deciding it's not a winner.
>"If I drop $100,000 in the street and walk away and the next person picks it up, it's their money," Ellen Corcella, the lottery's security director, said Wednesday.
But if I toss that $100,000 because the person working the lottery machine tells me it's not a winner and is worthless, that's not dropping $100,000 in the street. That's making a real effort to ask someone representing the lottery if it's a winner and not getting the correct answer.
Shame on the ticket-buyer for not checking their own ticket, and shame on the store clerk who should know how to examine the ticket.
I'm with you Todd, if someone spends $5 on a ticket they should know how to read it to determine if they are a winner or not. I've been in the store when someone ahead of me buys instant tickets and will scratch off the numbers at the bottom and tell the clerk to check to see if it's a winner. They can't even take the time to scratch it off and look for themselves. That's ridiculous!
Well, I don't agree with that one. I know in NJ, becoming a lottery retailer is a big deal, and requires that the store clerks understand all about it. Any store selling lottery tickets is considered an agent of the lottery, as they are officially licensed. Clerks are supposed to attend training as well.
There is no excuse for a clerk to pass judgement on a ticket if they don't know how to play. If they aren't sure, they should tell the customer, and they should seek help from another employee who does know how to play.
Whoever bought that ticket got what he or she deserved. For the life of me I will never understand why somebody would spend money on a ticket and not bother to check the ticket. Wouldn't it be worth the time to scratch the ticket and check to see if it is a winner for a $100,000? It is good this person didn't end up with that money because his/her own actions tell me this person didn't care if he/she had the money or not in which case winning the money isn't deserved.
technically the store clerk was right it was not a $40 winner, thats what they asked him to check for,,,,,they obivously did not look at the ticket correctly or did not read the instructions.....and didn't the store have one of those scanning machines.....or doesnt that work for scratch offs....
I don't play them
What the clerk SHOULD have done is to scan the ticket, type in the little code that appears on it, and the machine would indicate if it's a winner.
>"If I drop $100,000 in the street and walk away and the next person picks it up, it's their money," Ellen Corcella, the lottery's security director, said Wednesday.
Saying this is disingenuous at best, or a complete lie to distort the situation. If the person had their ticket read correctly and then got a check for $100,000, then cashed that check, then had $100,000 cash, then dropped that money in the street where it was found by someone else who took it never to return it, then what she says would be true. That's not the case. The person did not drop $100,000 in the street. The person was told the ticket was not a winner by the clerk working the lottery machine, and then put it in the trash as most people do with losing tickets. It's one thing to throw out a winner without checking like the couple in MA allegedly did - it's another to think you've won and then have a lousy lottery clerk screw you over.
Yes, it would be good to be suspicious of dumb people working lottery machines, and save a ticket you have a question about and be aware enough that you have a winner even if the lottery clerk says you don't. But no one deserves to lose a prize like that because of a lousy clerk.
However, the next time I find a bag of money or anything of value in the street I will take it with a clear conscience thanks to Ellen Corcella.
I worked with a guy that won 500,000 on a scratcher. he had taken his wife and family to dinner there were 4 adults and 2 children. his wife asked him to buy this ten dollar scratcher. The place where he bought the ticket for her was more of a restaurant than a bar and selling lottery tickets was a side line affair. So she scratches the ticket and they have uncovered 500.000 on the ticket three times. She doesn't know if it's a winner or not she hands it to him he looks at it and see's the three 500,000 windows also. and can't decide if it's a winner or not then he hands the ticket to the other couple who also look at the ticket and see the three 500,000 windows. These people are all college educated hold high profile jobs. On the ticket it clearly says match three like amounts win that prize. They hand the ticket to the waitress and ask her to check it she leaves and returns shortly telling them the have a winner. No way they exclaim cant be the waitress says sure it is take it to the lottery and they will verify it.
Some people educated or not have trouble realizing that they have won something so easy from just spending a few bucks they can't believe their eyes or become dumbfounded when faced with having won an extreme amount of money.
If it were me that scratched the ticket i would have quietly finished eating and ran all the way home to stash the ticket and celebrate.
Just think of the winning tickets thrown away that aren't found. I don't buy scratch tickets anymore, but I like to grab a few from the trash and look them over. Almost as much chance of winning as buying them and a lot cheaper, I like to say. I've found a few winners in the $1 -15 range, so I know people do toss out winning tickets.
to make things worse, it's the Hoosier Lottery that tricked the buyer out of $100,000. if i were the guy, i would beat the crap out of the clerk. then, i would go to their boss, and demand their firing.
I'd ask that couple, "When you shake your head does it rattle?"
Todd this guy kills me he is one of those guys you can't talk to until he has 3 cups of coffie in em....... knows it all. Is an avid hunter in his spare time. If the ticket was for boxes of ammo he probably would have jumped for joy in the resturant. I would have been embarrased to admit that i couldn't understand that i won 500,000 grand this guy was practacally bagin about how he needed varyfication from additional people. He's very lucky the waitress didn't keep walking out the door with the ticket or come back and tell him it was worthless. BTW that was about 3 yrs ago moneys all gone spent.
I do that all the time. No luck yet though.
I pick up tickets all the time and always see the bonus box on certain tickets NEVER scratched. I also at the end of the year went through all my old tickets as I throw them out at end of year and found about 50 bucks in winners in scratch offs, so it happens a lot more than you would think.
I recently picked up 4 wadded up tickets and found one that wasn't even scratched off. Didn't even win anything though.
I found unscratched tickets before. They did have a little bit scratched that had all the binary and stuff. But not the actual game. Again, no winner.
The indiana lottery has already been BUSTED IN THE PAST! The SECURITY GUY TOLD HIS TWO FRIEND WHERE THE WINNING TICKET WAS WORTH I MILLION DOLLARS,His two friend went into the store,purchased700 DOLLARS WORTH OF TICKETS, WHOLE ROLL.
Then brought the winning ticket into the Indiana lottery office to collect the money.
One of the lottery workers recognizes one of the two guys as the security officers friend
AN INVESTIGAION beginsTHEY WERE BUSTED FOR THEFT ALONG WITH THE SECURITY OFFICER.
SINCE THIS IS THE CASE, MAYBE IT IS ANOTHER SCAM!
MAYBE THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.
another crooked security guy tells two more of his friends where the winning scratcher is,
rememeber they have already done this trick once, so i am not making it up so dont look at me as crazy, just passing on old news is all!
SO WHY NOT AGAIN! but this time we have to have a good story.
I mean who is going to know they are way out in the boon docks, in the middle of indiana somewhere.
So the one who dropped the ticket in the trash and the one who found it are actually friends, of the new security guy, the new one who told them where the winning ticket was at.
YET TO COVER THEIR TRACKS THEY HAVE TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE THEY DONT KNOW EACH OTHER AND CONCOCT THIS STORY!
SO ONE GUY DROPS IT IN THE TRASH THE OTHER PICKS IT UP, AND CASHES IT IN, NO ONE IS THE WISER.Thats How i would do it if i were criminally minded
THE CLERK AT THE STORE WAS INVOLVED IN IT too!
IS THAT FUNNY OR WHAT? LOL
SEE YA
I agree that the clerk may have been involved, but in a different way. The clerk may have seen it was a winner and knowing the buyer was naive, told them it wasn't a winner, knowing they would throw it away. The clerk then calls a friend with the scheme to take it out of the garbage can and they split it on the sly.
Why else in the world would the clerk not have scanned the ticket? The scanner won't look only for a $40 winner, it will tell you exactly what you've won.
Something that would solve problems like this for not-so-bright people would be to have the scanner play music (as they do in New Mexico) when a winner is scanned or a mandatory receipt given to the customer every time a ticket is scanned showing if it won anything or if it's a loser.
Even this however, will not circumvent the error of putting blind faith in a minimum-wage convenience store clerk who could use the money as much or more as the rube buying the ticket.
well, i,m
True. I blame the ticket buyer most. If I wanna make sure, I ask the clerk AND have the clerk run it through the machine, THEN bring the ticket home to make sure again for myself, or by another person.
Would the lottery organization make it public if a 1st prize "scratch ticket" has won, but not claimed? I hope so.
heh another good point
For a time in Florida we had stores that could sell scratchers, but were not hooked up to the lottery by computer, they had to read the ticket like a player would to see if they had to pay off.
If a clerk knew their customers habits, such as tossing losing tickets into the trash, they could declare winners to be losers and pull them out later to cash at another store.
The news used to tell us, who, what, when, where, why, now they always seem to leave out the bits of information you'd need to make a fully informed judgement of the situation. BobP
Exactly. I don't buy scratchers anymore either, but may in a rare case. I also pick up and keep the discarded scratchers at the store. If it's not a win, I save it for tax purposes when I win $600+. I hope the IRS counts the scratchers too lol. Wow you found some discarded winners. Kudos to you.