Search on for California lottery winner given $75 instead of $75,000

[zwiebel]

A man holding a winning lottery ticket took it into a Palmdale, California gas station to get it checked. The cashier saw the ticket was a winner and paid him the specified prize of $75.

After the man had left, the cashier realized he'd misread the amount - which was actually $75,000.

The cashier informed his boss, Shamsun Hahar Islam, straight away and now the search is on to find the man, who has six months to claim the rest of his prize money.

http://abc7.com/society/palmdale-st...n-who-won-$75k-in-lotto-ticket-mishap/694775/

 

[zwiebel]

The man's been found and turned out to be an undercover lottery agent! There is now an investigation going on to make sure the mistake was an honest one.

"We have a lot more questions than answers. A lot of red flags have been raised and we are looking into whether this was an honest mistake or not," Lopez said.

http://abc7.com/society/man-in-lott...33/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

[RLynne]

The man's been found and turned out to be an undercover lottery agent! There is now an investigation going on to make sure the mistake was an honest one.



http://abc7.com/society/man-in-lott...33/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

That's one heck of a coincidence...

 

[zwiebel]

The investigation has concluded and officials say this was a genuine mistake, and not fraud. There were minor discrepancies in procedurals so staff are going to be retrained.

Store manager Shamsun Islam was congratulated on her honesty and attempts to find the winner.

Islam had contacted a television station and provided surveillance photos and video of the man in hopes of tracking him down to pay him the full amount — not realizing he was an undercover investigator and that the ticket was fake.

I was just thinking...lottery officials were probably preparing to make arrests or something, when suddenly the search for the mystery 'winner' started hitting the news!

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015...understanding-not-fraud/#.VUvQY9hcTSA.twitter

 

[jjenny]

The investigation has concluded and officials say this was a genuine mistake, and not fraud. There were minor discrepancies in procedurals so staff are going to be retrained.

Store manager Shamsun Islam was congratulated on her honesty and attempts to find the winner.



I was just thinking...lottery officials were probably preparing to make arrests or something, when suddenly the search for the mystery 'winner' started hitting the news!

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015...understanding-not-fraud/#.VUvQY9hcTSA.twitter

I don't understand how it could be a mistake? When the clerk scanned the ticket, shouldn't the machine have told him that the owner of the ticket should go the lottery office?

Lottery officials were probably waiting until somebody would try to cash the ticket.