Who is the real owner of the winning lottery ticket in Arkansas?

I have not read the article but I saw it in the news. How does the lady who claimed it (the original owner), know that particular ticket was hers if it was not signed? I assume there are lots of tickets in the garbage and they all look the same.

What an odd story.

It seems to me that the burden of proof should have been on the claimant that she was actually the owner of the ticket, and not the woman who pulled it from the trash. Its appearance in the trash would seem to me to be prima facie evidence of abandonment.

She didn’t sign it, she made no attempt to redeem it, she threw it in the trash. What more evidence can exist that she was relinquishing her claim on the ticket. Politically correct, but otherwise bad call by the judge.

Here’s an older yet more detailed version of this story. As I heard it on tv today, I’d side with the original winner of the ticket. Due to the error the clerk at the store made by not scratching off enough, the ticket scanned as a non-winner. It was then discarded in the stores trash can (not a public garbage can).

Now the story goes on. Just because the judge ruled in favor of the ticket purchaser, means little. The lady that turned in the ticket and got the payout states that she spent all of the money.

I’m not sure how it was established that it was hers @jca. Apparently the Lottery Commission was the entity that established who had bought the winning ticket.

She spent 1 mil in less than a year?

All I heard on the news was that there was little left after she gave financial gifts to family. To me it sounded like she dumped the money on purpose.

@SpatzieLover: Yes, that’s what it sounds like. I say if the judge orders her to return it, she should be made to, even if she has to pay it in payments. Another option is she should specify who she gave it to, and they return it.

I agree. The whole thing sounded a bit like a scam to me. I smell something fishy.

Lottery tickets are bearer instruments. That means whoever physically holds them owns them. The clerk made a mistake, and maybe the original purchaser has a claim against the store for that reason, but throwing a ticket away for any reason forfeits your right to it. It’s tough, it’s painful, it’s infuriating. But it’s also the law.

Also, I agree that it’s probably not true that all the money is gone. It wouldn’t be that surprising if it was, though, because most winners burn through the money fast. A lot of them actually end up bankrupt afterwards.