Here at Online-Lotto we bring you stories of unlucky people losing their prizes for one reason or another but you can’t help but feel sorry for the Florida pensioner who lost his winning lottery ticket on the way to claim what would have been a life-changing $500,000 prize.
Last Wednesday Louis Tolentino, a 69-year-old pensioner from Wellington, Florida went to his local Gold Coast Liquor store as usual to buy Gold Rush scratch off tickets, which are run by Florida Lottery who also operate Powerball. He was amazed when he scratched off the panels and saw a five with five zeroes following it, he rushed to the store owner to confirm he was reading it correctly as he was overcome with excitement. The store owner scanned the ticket and sure enough, it was a $500,000 winning lottery ticket!
Tolentino quickly stashed the ticket in his back pocket, jumped in his car and headed for the Florida Lottery office. The unlucky lottery winner had difficulty finding the office so he stopped at a convenience store to ask for directions. As he furthered his journey he realized that his winning lottery ticket was missing. He panicked, and then injured his hands while furiously searching under the driver seat of his car. He hurriedly rushed back to the store where he bought the ticket but there was no sign of it anywhere. Was the winning ticket stolen? Did it fall out his back pocket? The unfortunate pensioner says he has no idea. ‘The worst part about it’ says Tolentino is that in his excitement he forgot to sign the winning ticket meaning that anyone who finds it can turn it in and claim the half a million dollar prize.
Don’t be like the Florida pensioner who lost his winning lottery ticket, let this be a warning to you. Sign you tickets. Or better still play online lotto where there’s no chance of losing your tickets.
