Woman pulls winning lottery ticket out of the garbage, must return it

[simster]

Originally Posted by saoirse

Also, if she always played the same numbers, chances are she had one of those punchcard deals with the numbers blacked in.

If she always played the same numbers - she would not rely on a scanner or other human to tell her if it was a winning ticket.

[saoirse]

Originally Posted by simster

If she always played the same numbers - she would not rely on a scanner or other human to tell her if it was a winning ticket.

Presumably she would if she didn't know what the winning numbers were.

[sisu]

Originally Posted by BigT

So the idea is to prevent recycling? That seems really odd. The monetary incentive of finding cans is what gets them recycled.

My post mentioned they were put in recycle bins, the council recycles them for the monies......

[Borzo]

Originally Posted by jtgain

If I were an attorney, I would advise against that. The crime of extortion comes to mind. Also, even if she agreed to your terms, the contract wouldn't be binding because she agreed under duress.

If you are in possession of someone else's property, it is your duty to return it to them. But as was mentioned upthread, I believe that lottery tickets are bearer documents. I can't see how putting your signature on them gives that any legal significance except for evidentiary purposes.

Originally Posted by What the .... ?!?!

Good idea to a point...... the same court that would decide it's her's would probably find that you owe her the winnings if you destroyed her property.

Well luckily where I live you can find a ticket in the trash and claim it as yours without trouble. The only trouble would be if their signature was on it.

Of course I'd do all this very carefully and cover my tracks. She forfeited the ticket when she threw it out. If anything, I'm doing her a favour by offering her a portion of the winnings.