Indiana Lottery winner pays $500,000 after clerk rips ticket
An Indiana man who won $500,000 in the Indiana Lottery will get a payday even though his ticket was shredded in front of him by a careless clerk, The Lottery Post first reported .
Officials voted to award Citizen Paul Marshall the prize at an Indiana Lottery Commission meeting in Indianapolis earlier this month.
Of course, Marshall was delighted with his life-changing Powerball victory and quickly returned to the store where he purchased the ticket with the precious ticket in order to verify it.
The store checked and confirmed his ticket. However, because the lottery retailer was unable to pay out winnings over $600, Marshall received a printed note with instructions for going to the claims office. The clerk tore off the ticket and threw it in the trash.
According to the Lottery Commission, it's muscle memory. The cashier was used to dealing with lost tickets, so he threw them away out of habit.
Putting the story together
When Marshall arrived at the claims center, he provided written instructions to lottery officials, but without the winning ticket, they refused to pay.
It was a lucky event that we were able to recreate what happened," Lottery Director of Legal and Compliance Chuck Taylor said of the commission's 5-0 vote in favor of the payout said.
Lottery officials were able to visit the store and view video footage that corroborated Marshall's story.
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Another plaintiff whose case was heard at the same meeting was not so lucky, the Lottery Post reported.
When Drena Harris won $500 from a scratch-off ticket, she was delighted to post a photo of the ticket to her Facebook account. But when she claimed her prize, she discovered it had already been paid for by one of her fans.
Unidentified scammers used lottery ticket images to trick sellers into cashing out their winnings, which turned out to be easy since the winnings were below the $600 threshold.
The store is at fault and should not have paid without a physical winning ticket. By the time Harris presented his case to the Lottery Commission, the store had ceased operations and there was no longer any evidence of fraudulent transactions.
"It wasn't a decision we liked, but we can't pay twice for anything," Taylor said.
It’s a cautionary tale if ever there was one about the dangers of social media bragging.
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Source: www.casino.org
