Posted on 05/01/2012 5:32:39 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
SEARCY, Ark. (AP) -- An Arkansas woman who cashed $1 million lottery ticket may have to give up the winnings to a woman who threw away the ticket after she bought it.
A judge ruled Tuesday that Sharon Duncan is entitled to the prize money, not Sharon Jones, who claimed the prize money after she took it from a trash can of discarded lottery tickets at a convenience store in Beebe.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Oh, c’mon! Anyone can say they threw away a ticket.
Stupid judge...split it....
Is this the ticket that was squirreled away in a secret crevice of a McDonalds?
Pathetic!
BS, you hold the ticket, you win the money.
No, that joyful episode took place in Maryland.
um’’if you throw it out, is it really yours anymore??
The Legal Forces in the USA for many years have been rooting in suspects garbage with the backing of the top courts. The rulings have always been once an item was placed in a trash receptacle, and not on a person’s private land, it was considered surrendered to who ever takes it thereafter.
How did this ruling not fall under those rulings?
You can’t really own anything any more. Stuff just floats around, and then the government gives it to someone.
Credit card, bank card records? What evidence? She was in the store at roughly the right time?
If Ms. Jones hadn't told anyone that she picked the ticket out of the trash, would Ms. Duncan have been able to make the claim?
This is why you always write your name on it...
This smells VERY fishy.....
I agree that it sounds pretty stupid, but I’m always suspicious when a store clerk “finds” a winning ticket. There’s been so many stories of store clerks telling people a ticket isn’t a winner and pocketing it that I’m always skeptical.
I bet the Left copies and pastes that as their new Constitution.
I too wondered if this says police can not search trash any more. So I read the article. It appears:
1. The woman who bought the ticket later returned to the store.
2. The ticket was scanned and returned as not a winner.
3. The woman dropped said ticket into a can on the counter for discarded tickets.
4. The second woman apparently not employed by the store at some point later took a bunch of tickets from the can to recheck. [I am not sure if rechecking could be because some people just look at posted numbers and do not have the tickets scanned? ]
My view is:
A. The second woman legally is due to winnings, unless somehow she involved in a scam to falsely tell the person who bought the ticket it was not a winner.
B. The woman who bought the ticket has a cause of action for $1,000,000 against the store or the lottery system and the software company depending on who owns the machine in the store that told her her ticket was not a winner, unless somehow she is lying about scanning the ticket and just read the numbers and concluded on her own she did not win.
I am not an attorney but that is how I see it.
Doesn’t the ticket say you need to sign it in order to claim it? If the lady threw it away that is is her fault.
Finders keepers losers weepers
If Ms. Jones hadn’t told anyone that she picked the ticket out of the trash, would Ms. Duncan have been able to make the claim? Exactly! Stupid is, as stupid does, She was incapable of keeping her mouth shut. Credit card, bank card records? I think this is a cash only transaction, at least that is the way it’s run in Colorado.
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