$10000 Lottery ticket thrown away
25th May 2008 3:32 PM
One Mega Millions ticket holder is exhaling deeply at the moment after their winning ticket was accidentally thrown in the rubbish. The man took the ticket to his local Safeway shop to cash it in on May 17th; he left it with the counter clerk after the validity had been checked. Upon returning on Wednesday the ticket was missing!
The obvious place to look were the bins but all the rubbish had been collected by Waste Management.
A frantic phone call to the company followed and six employees where given the task of emptying the compactor measuring 15 feet long by six feet tall and contained 7 tonnes of waste. They then had to search through the whole lot in the hope that this one small piece of paper could be found.
The six employees used for this mammoth task usually carry out “recycling composition studies” for any local business that requests it so were the best qualified to complete the search as they are used to sorting different materials.
It took about two hours in total to actually find the ticket and it was returned to its rightful owner who as yet is still to claim the £10,000 prize according to Jacque Coe who works for the Washington State Lottery.
It would appear that the ticket was discarded as the clerk who originally dealt with the winner simply placed it on the counter; another employee came along, thought the ticket had been paid out and threw it away.
What’s even more shocking is that the winner left the ticket at the shop without claiming his money, if it were me a winning lottery ticket would be held on my person at all times. No way would I leave it in a shop!
A few years ago a similar incident happened when a woman took a winning ticket worth millions to a local store and left it with the assistant who then lost it. Luckily this ticket was also found.
Neither of the people involved in the two incidences had bothered to sign their winning tickets and if it weren’t for the honesty of the shop staff involved potentially could have lost out as without a signature there really is no proof of ownership.
Page Last Updated: 11/09/2008 08:56:56
