Tag Archives: winning ticket
Keep Track of Those Lottery Tickets!
A Maryland lottery player accidentally threw out a $250,000 Mega Millions ticket and retrieved it after a frantic 90 minute search. The 49 year old lottery player from Baltimore bought several lottery tickets for the March 9th drawing. The man checked his tickets but failed to realize he had a winning ticket. Shortly after he threw away the tickets a Maryland lottery employee told his brother that a winning ticket had been purchased at Barnabas Liquors in Temple Hills, the same store where the winning ticket was purchased. After the mans brother told him the news the man called the store to check the winning numbers. The man went to the store and after searching through trash for about an hour and a half the winning ticket was located. The lucky winner said he will use his winnings to pay off bills and he and his wife are planning a trip to Europe.
A similar near mishap almost happened on the other side of the world. A New Zealand woman carried around a $4 million dollar winning ticket in her handbag for about a month before she realized she had had a winning lottery ticket. The middle aged woman had purchased a New Zealand Powerball lottery ticket at a local supermarket and stuck the ticket in her handbag along with other old lottery tickets. The woman and her family were shocked at the big win and the woman said that perhaps it was time to upgrade her old battered handbag. She plans to upgrade the familys home and help other family members.
n almost identical situation occurred in Melbourne Australia. The woman had bought a superdraw ticket last September and thought she had misplaced the lottery ticket. The unnamed woman stated, I was just doing some spring cleaning and came across a ticket clipped to some other paperwork by a bulldog clip. I knew West Doncaster News and Lotto had sold a division-one winner but I thought I had lost my ticket. Then I found it filed away yesterday and thought Id call Tatts to see if Id won anything. I really had no idea that it was the actual winning ticket.
Imagine if these lucky winners remained in the dark about their big lottery wins. Most lottery experts say that the sale of online lottery tickets would prevent similar situations. Many countries now sell online lottery tickets and several lotteries send email alerts to winners which would prevent similar near mishaps like the ones above. It is time lotteries discarded outmoded technology and joined the 21st century.