Rutherford County Sheriff's detectives say that customer bought 2 $20 diamond and gold lottery tickets from the clerk. 23 year old meet Patel. As some lottery players do to save time. The customer just scratched off the front bar codes and then asked Patel to check if they were winners. If you scratch off the front bar code, it'll tell you if it's *** winner or not, regardless of whether you scratch off everything showing how much you've won. Lieutenant Detective Steve Craig says both tickets won, but Patel only handed the man back the $40 winner. He told him the other ticket lost. But in actuality, it was *** million dollar winner. He threw it on top of the trash as that gentleman left, he took the trash outside. And if you follow him on the camera, you can see him grab the ticket, put it in his pocket. Not long after that, Patel decided to try and claim the cash prize. He went to the Tennessee lottery commission to claim the ticket as his own. And through their normal line of questioning, they, there were enough red flags for them to say, hey, you need to get all your affairs in order and come back to us and we're gonna hold on to the ticket. What Patel likely didn't know is that lottery officials vet all big winners. And that includes checking security video of the tickets purchased, video in evidence that Craig says clearly shows the ticket was stolen. It's pretty obvious, good enough for me to put it in front of 12 jurors and, and make sure that they all come to the same conclusion.
A man missed winning the lottery jackpot by a single number. The next day, he won big
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Updated: 8:54 PM CDT Aug 11, 2024
After a Michigan man was one number off from matching all five winning numbers in the state’s Fantasy 5 jackpot last month, he got back into the action the next day. It paid off, and he walked away with a huge payout.Related video above: Stolen lottery ticket returned to winnerThe 53-year-old man from Macomb County, who chose not to reveal his identity, says the night after his near win, he played again and matched all five numbers to win the $795,905 Fantasy 5 jackpot, the Michigan Lottery said in a news release Thursday.The player won big after purchasing a winning ticket online on July 27, according to lottery officials. The jackpot for the July 26 game was $610,000.“I always buy Fantasy 5 tickets if the jackpot is over $250,000,” the player told the Michigan Lottery. “I usually buy my tickets in-store, but the night of the drawing, I realized I’d forgotten to buy some.”He went online to buy two tickets, and after the drawing, he says he received an email from the Michigan Lottery stating he’d won $1 in the drawing, according to the release.He thought the dollar was all he’d won until he received another email instructing him to log into his account to claim his prize, he said.“When I logged in and saw $795,905 pending, my first thought was that it was a scam,” he told lottery officials, adding that the reality of his big win began to set in while visiting the lottery office to claim his prize.“What’s crazy is the night before, I matched four out of five numbers on my Fantasy 5 ticket and thought: ‘I was so close!’” he told officials.He had won $100, but says he was “bummed” to miss out on the large jackpot prize. “I never could have imagined then that the next night I would actually win the jackpot!” he said.
After a Michigan man was one number off from matching all five winning numbers in the state’s Fantasy 5 jackpot last month, he got back into the action the next day. It paid off, and he walked away with a huge payout.
Related video above: Stolen lottery ticket returned to winner
The 53-year-old man from Macomb County, who chose not to reveal his identity, says the night after his near win, he played again and matched all five numbers to win the $795,905 Fantasy 5 jackpot, the Michigan Lottery said in a news release Thursday.
The player won big after purchasing a winning ticket online on July 27, according to lottery officials. The jackpot for the July 26 game was $610,000.
“I always buy Fantasy 5 tickets if the jackpot is over $250,000,” the player told the Michigan Lottery. “I usually buy my tickets in-store, but the night of the drawing, I realized I’d forgotten to buy some.”
He went online to buy two tickets, and after the drawing, he says he received an email from the Michigan Lottery stating he’d won $1 in the drawing, according to the release.
He thought the dollar was all he’d won until he received another email instructing him to log into his account to claim his prize, he said.
“When I logged in and saw $795,905 pending, my first thought was that it was a scam,” he told lottery officials, adding that the reality of his big win began to set in while visiting the lottery office to claim his prize.
“What’s crazy is the night before, I matched four out of five numbers on my Fantasy 5 ticket and thought: ‘I was so close!’” he told officials.
He had won $100, but says he was “bummed” to miss out on the large jackpot prize. “I never could have imagined then that the next night I would actually win the jackpot!” he said.
