A Lucky Mistake Results in $250,000 Mega Millions Lottery Win

he misprinted a man's ticket and decided to just buy the misprint for herself. Turns out - she made the right decision. This lucky market employee cashed in a $250,000 Mega Millions winning lottery ticket as a result. Here's the story from Online Casino Reports.

Accidental Lottery Winner

A recent mistake made by a store clerk in Lexington, Ohio, USA, bagged her a Mega Millions lottery prize of $250,000.

Naomi Mauller, aged 51, who works at the “Woolfe’s Huff and Puff” mini mart made the error when she was printing a local customer’s Mega Millions lottery ticket. He asked for a Kicker added to his game, but she forgot to include it. She printed him another ticket with the same numbers and the Kicker, and then bought the unwanted ticket for herself. When the lottery draw was made, Naomi and the customer scooped a quarter of a million dollars each!
A Lucky Mistake

“You can’t cancel the Mega Millions ticket.” Naomi explained, “So I thought, what the heck, I’ll buy it. That was a mistake I’ll never forget.”

Well, mistake it may have been but she’s certainly the richer for it. She realized she’d won only thanks to her boss, who called her at home to ask if she knew anything about two tickets with identical numbers which had come up trumps on the lottery draw. When she checked her numbers - 12, 17, 21, 23 and 30 - she realized she was a winner. Read the whole story...

Canadian Lottery Scam Artist Jailed for 9 Years

Watch out for the scam artists. They are espeically targeting the elderly. They tell folks they won large lottery jackpots and that they have to pay certain fees before collecting their lottery prize. This lottery scam artist was ripping off folks in the US while operating out of Canada. He's been put away for 9 years. Here's the story as reported by The Lottery Post.

Canadian gets 9 years for U.S. lottery scam

A Vancouver man was sentenced to nine years in prison Monday for running a lottery scam in the United States that defrauded dozens of elderly victims of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Henry Anekwu, 43, was convicted in April of 10 counts of mail fraud and six counts of wire fraud, all of which were centered around a telemarketing operation that told victims they had won a lottery, but needed to pay taxes or other fees up front to claim their winnings. Individual victims paid as much as $60,000 into the scheme, which operated for about five years until 2003. Many of the 79 victims in the scam lost their homes as a result. Read the whole story...

How Sweet it is to be Loved by Him

What a sweet start for this Missouri bride and groom to be. He gave his finance a lottery scratch ticket that brought home $250,000 in lottery winnings. The couple is going to pay off their home. Not a bad way to start of a marriage - mortgage free! Here's the story from Walletpop.com:

Groom gives bride-to-be $250,000 lottery ticket

Nothing says love like giving your future spouse a winning $250,000 lottery ticket.

That's what happened in Ballwin, Mo., where Robert Russell, 33, surprised his future wife, 30-year-old Tracie Rogers, with the "$250,000 Payout" scratcher, purchased at a QuikTrip in St. Louis.

"I thought it was a fake!" Rogers told the Missouri Lottery. "I was just shocked. You always hear about people winning big money on the Lottery, but you never meet anybody."

The Missouri Lottery says the couple plan to use their winnings to pay off a house. Not a bad way to start off a marriage, especially since around 14 million Americans, or 19 percent of all homeowners, owe more than $100,000 on their mortgages. Read the whole story...

Really a sword?

This story is a bit strange. I also don't like it when I don't win the lottery, but I don't conceal weapons and threaten people. Here it is reported by Mercury News.

Watsonville man arrested for concealed sword after he complains his lottery tickets aren't winners

WATSONVILLE — A man arguing with a store clerk over lottery tickets was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon Tuesday morning after he showed an officer a sword concealed in his trench coat, Watsonville police reported.

Watsonville resident Laurence Roscoe Gregory, 65, was fighting with the clerk because he believed his tickets were winners, when in fact they were not, according to Sgt. Saul Gonzalez. The officer talked with Gregory outside the store, located on the 100 block of East Lake Avenue, around 8 a.m. and explained that Gregory hadn't won.

Then the officer asked Gregory, who was wearing "bulky" clothing, if he had any weapons on him and Gregory revealed the 3- to 4-foot-long sword under his coat. He told the officer the sword was part of his attire, Gonzalez said. Read the whole story...

Florida Woman is out $5,000 in Lottery Scam

This poor trusting woman was approached by a pregnant woman and her friend claiming they had a winning Mega Millions lottery ticket that they could not cash. They told the woman that if she gave them $5,000 they would find someone to cash it and give her $30,000 in return. Instead of the money she got newspapers and rocks. Although I don't think the victim was smart in trusting strangers, I still feel badly that she got swindled out of $5,000. Here's the story reported by WFTV.

Victim Scammed Of $5K By Pregnant Woman

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orlando police told WFTV they're seeing new cases of one of the oldest tricks in the book: lottery scams. WFTV talked to one victim who said she was swindled by a pregnant woman.

"I feel ashamed of myself, I’m sorry," victim Genoveva Rosario said.

Genoveva Rosario lost $5,000 to a lottery scam. She was shopping at K-mart Wednesday when a pregnant woman and her friend approached her saying they had a winning Mega Millions ticket but couldn't cash it because they were illegal.

"I tried to help them, they asked me for help, especially the pregnant one," Rosario said.

The women told Rosairo if she gave them $5,000, they would pay someone to cash the ticket. They would split the winnings and give her $30,000. They convinced her to go to her bank and withdraw the cash.

The suspects told Rosairo to meet them at a shopping plaza so she could sign some papers,but when she got there she realized something wasn't right and asked for her money back. Instead, she got paper and rocks. The thieves put rocks and newspaper in the shape of money in a Fed Ex bag and took off.

“Why did you take them to your bank and take that money out?” WFTV reporter Vanessa Welch asked Rosario.

"It's stupid, stupid. I don’t trust my instincts, just stupid," she answered. Read the full story...