Lottery ticket question....

[Superfly]

ala the story in the news right now.

You buy a lottery ticket with the winning numbers. You drop the ticket before the drawing...hell, even after the drawing.

Somebody finds the ticket, submits it, and claims the prize.

How can you prove it was yours? In Virginia, they suggest you sign the back of the ticket, but let's say you didn't do that.

The guy who claims the prize could just say he put $5 in cash down on the ticket, and received it from the clerk. Does he have a receipt? Yes, the ticket is the receipt.

So, how does the person who lost the ticket claim it as hers?

[Catherine Vincent]

1. Unfortunately she can't.

Maybe video cameras from the store. But I read on Yahoo the second that received the check (a little while ago), had an actual receipt with the winning ticket. So I guess she is the winner.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

2. prove is the hard part

I am not sure it can be done. And even if it can be done, be proved that you once possessed the ticket, there is the little problem of how it came to be in someone elses possession. Who's to say that you didn't throw it away? As a bearer instrument, unless you signed it, the person who has it, owns it.

TheProdigal

[Bunny]

3. I guess that's the lesson here.

Sign all tickets before you walk away from the ticket counter. It would have helped this woman in Ohio if she'd signed it before she lost it. Too late now.

[cosmicdot]

4. perhaps a time frame when purchased

... there could be a "time" associated with the winning number purchase ... which might lend relevance to a claim ...

... no ticket, no laundry ...

that's rough ... but, I can relate to such 'luck' ...

[Insider]

5. the other question

how does a person who bought (and has) the ticket refute a claim that someone else bought it and lost it?

seems to me it could be completely open season. hell, i bought it and lost it too.

[yellowcanine]

6. Tickets say right on them they are "bearer instruments"

or some such language. That means that without evidence to the contrary, the presumption of ownership is to the person who actually has the ticket. Signing the ticket on the back would be the only way one could override that presumption. Reporting the ticket stolen/lost BEFORE THE DRAWING with the ticket identified by the numbers would be another way. On the basis of what I read about this, this woman seems to have "lost her purse" very conveniently. Certainly she knew the purse was gone before the drawing. Did she report it and describe the lottery ticket ahead of the drawing? If not, nice try, lady.

[amazona]

7. the person who lost the ticket screwed up -- too bad

You can't have the person who lost the ticket be able to collect.

The holder of the ticket should be the only one entitlted to collect.

Otherwise, now every time there is a big lottery won, someone is going to pop up and claim they were the one to buy the ticket.

Endless infighting. You get enough of it as it is with endless relatives, co-workers, etc. claiming that they had a "deal" with you.

Saying you picked some numbers that were in your family after seeing them on TV...well and good...there are only so many numbers and I for one wouldn't have any trouble linking any random group of numbers to my family for $162 million. If the lady had filed her report BEFORE the drawing, it would at least be somewhat believable or understandable that she had something of a claim. But to file a police report AFTER the drawing claiming she lost the ticket? Argh. She should just go away.

Do you know what happens when gambling comes into a non-gambling area? The filing of false police reports takes a huge jump -- if I recall correctly, it jumped three times in my area. (Mostly employees embezzling money, losing it at the casino, then filing a false police report claiming to be robbed.) By all means, let this loser have her claim and give the police even more false reports in future to deal with...

I never found $162 million in the trash but I've found hundreds of dollars in cash and casino coupons over the years. If you throw it away with no identifying marks on it, sorry, it's mine. If it was that important to you, it wouldn't be on the ground or in the damn trash.