Wow, a California man learned a hard lesson when he nearly lost his $10 million lottery winning ticket.

The Washington Post reported that the man, who lives in California had felt lucky and bought a $30 scratch-off ticket.  Well he won what he thought was $10,000.  He went home and immediately told his roommates about his luck.  He went to bed and woke up the next morning to go to the district office of the California State Lottery to collect his winnings.  The officials told him his ticket was worthless.

It turns out one of his roommates stole his ticket and turned it in himself and learned that the ticket was actually worth $10 million dollars.  By the way the roommate replaced the winning ticket with his losing ticket.  What the roommate did not know is that California Lottery investigates any winning ticket over $600, although the Lottery officials did not suspect foul play when the roommate brought the stolen ticket in they begin attempting to verify its authenticity.  That is where they determined the roommate had stolen the ticket.

Meanwhile the rightful owner of the ticket suspected one of his roommates stole his ticket and reported the theft to the local police.

What happened, the lottery officials set up a sting and invited the roommate to collect his winnings on Jan. 7. When the roommate showed up at the office the police arrested him on the spot and charged him with grand theft.

The question is will the rightful owner be given his winnings, well according to the report the police could not say whether the ticket’s rightful owner would receive the winnings and then stated:

although, I’m sure everything will work out in the end

What do we learn from this, keep your mouth shut until you actually turn in your winning lottery ticket and collect your money.

 

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