Do you know anybody who does this?
What is your take on this story out of Ark?
woman who lost Ark. lotto ticket entitled to $1mil
finders keeper losers weepers?
This happened in MA. I don’t recall all the details, but the impoverished guy who found the ticket got to keep it. I believe the judge ruled that the original owner had clearly given up rights to the ticket by tossing it.
My first reaction is that once you throw something away, you relinquish all claim to it, period. But…
This complicates the matter, if true. If she abandoned the ticked based on faulty information provided by the lottery’s equipment, I’m closer to buying her claim to the money. That’s a big “if” though; I’d be more inclined to suspect user error, in which case, yes, finders keepers.
I’ve picked up lottery tickets out of the gutter - I check the numbers (even if it’s last week’s draw, as it could still have won). A couple of times, I’ve found tickets for upcoming draws.
One time, one of them won £10, which I collected and spent on something life-enriching. (technically, I should have handed it to the lottery company, but it would probably have been untraceable, as it was a lucky dip ticket - numbers picked by the machine printing it).
If it had been a significant win, I’d have followed proper procedure and handed it in.
She could sue the lottery commission or whoever is at fault for the false report then. I think if you throw something away, you’re SOL.
Do Not Trust the card reader to get it right. I use gift cards all the time, 9 ties out of 10 it reads back an error or the cashier enters the number in error. TWICE I have fished out of the garbage 100 DOLLAR gift cards, because I believed them to be spent (used to lose track my bad). One was at the bottom of my garbage bag, one I tossed into the cashier’s can, then she told me to get it out “just in case” :rolleyes: fool me twice…:smack:
not happening again!
Hm. If I lose a winning ticket by accident, I think it’s still mine. It’s hard to prove yes, maybe I won’t usually be able to do so. But in principle, I think it should follow the same laws as anything else – you don’t get to say “someone left their mercedes benz left to a rubbish bin so now I get to take it”. But if no-one claims something you found, you get to keep it.
If I deliberately throw it away, then I think it’s gone, and fair game to anyone else. (Although I don’t think that should apply to my personal information – I think I’ve relinquished a claim to the benefit of something in the trash, but not to “not be defrauded, blackmailed, or have my privacy invaded by it”)
If I drop my wedding ring on the table and then accidentally scoop it up with a bunch of old newspaper and throw it away, I think it’s unclear – I hope there’s precedent, but I don’t know what it is.
In this case, if the lottery readout was wrong, I don’t know. It’s even possible that the finder gets the winnings, but the loser can sue the lottery company for that amount in damages…?