- An undocumented Mexican immigrant could not collect his lottery prize after winning almost a million dollars
- However, the Consulate General of Mexico in California gave him his passport so that he could open the bank account and receive his award.
- The Hispanic bought two scratch-offs and was about to lose the opportunity to collect his prize
After almost nine months of uncertainty, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who won almost a million dollars in the California lottery, managed to collect his prize despite the fact that at the time of winning it he did not have ‘papers’, reported La Opinion.
The Mexican from Oaxaca earned $ 750,000 after buying two “Mystery Crossword” scratch-offs on October 30, 2020. One of the scratches cost him $ 5 and the other $ 10.
Undocumented man wins the lottery but, having no papers, he feared he would not be able to collect his prize
At first, in a desperate attempt not to lose the prize, the Mexican immigrant tried to get another person who did have papers to collect the money, however, the lottery began an investigation after this action, delaying the payment for months, the media reported reviewed.
After those months of investigation, the California Lottery finally issued a check in favor of the immigrant in the amount of $ 525,000, after the discount for state taxes. However, the problems continued since, having no papers, he could not open a bank account and therefore could not collect his prize.
The immigrant tried to get someone else to collect the prize
“At that moment I felt happy and at the same time tears came down,” said the undocumented man in an interview with Univisión where he asked to remain anonymous. The Mexican assured that he felt anguished since he did not know how he could cash the check when he did not have ‘papers’.
Finally, and thanks to the help of the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles, California, the undocumented person was able to obtain a Mexican passport that would prove his identity and that would allow him to open a bank account, necessary to deposit the lottery check.
Mexican knows what he will do with his money
The 59-year-old Mexican has been living in the city of Los Angeles for 22 years and assured that he knows where he will spend his money. The Hispanic who works in the construction area, wants to create his own company with the money he earned and with the profits he obtains, he plans to buy a house, two cars, tools and help his family that lives in Mexico.
On the other hand, a ticket that had the prize of $ 1 million and that was already practically in the trash, was rescued by the owner of the store and he returned it to the winner, according to a publication made in the news portal Boston 25 News.
Lottery ticket was going to be thrown away, they rescued it and had a prize of $ 1 million
According to WWLP, it was Abhi Shah who reviewed a lot of tickets that were about to be thrown away, since none were the winners, however, with an almost super powerful sight, he managed to see something that caught his attention.
It all started when a buyer came to her business and got her ticket, scratching her saw that there was no prize, which is why she decided to return it to be sent to the trash or added for a second chance. But when checking the container of the tickets that would be sent to the trash, the owner noticed a detail in one of the tickets that were there, so he decided to look at it carefully and realized that it did not have to be thrown away.
Analyzed two night what to do
After reviewing it well, the man explained that he realized that the ticket had not been completely scratched, so he decided to take an object to do it and realized that there was a very large prize, specifically $ 1 million.
Suddenly a question came to him, what to do? For two days the man, along with his family, discussed what to do with the winning ticket. The store owner said, “I scratched the number, and it was $ 1 million under the ticket,” he said in surprise. Filed Under: Lottery Ticket
They return it to the family
After analyzing it in those days, the family, together with the owner of the store, decided to follow their instincts and chose to return the lottery ticket to its winner, since they wanted to do the right thing and not take something that is not theirs.
“As soon as she walked in, I handed her her $ 1 million ticket, and she freaked out and cried like a baby. She sat on the floor right here, ”said Maunish Shah, owner of the store, after not knowing what to do with that winning ticket. Filed Under: Undocumented Wins Lottery.
“We did not sleep for two nights”
Maunish Shah said: “We did not sleep two nights. He called my mom, grandparents in India, they said to pay it back, we don’t want that money. ” It was a difficult decision, but in the end the family wanted to do the right thing.
It was thus that this story ended with an exemplary honesty that has been highlighted by society and above all, because their client was frequent and they did not want to cause problems if she returned to complain. Filed Under: Undocumented Wins Lottery.
Missing the chance to be a millionaire?
This case is reminiscent of what happened in the middle of this month when the winner of a $ 26 million prize in the California lottery may have literally thrown a chance to win a fortune down the drain, according to the AP agency.
The winning ticket for the November 14 SuperLotto Plus drawing was sold at an Arco AM / PM convenience store in Norwalk, a suburb of Los Angeles. Thursday was the last day to collect it, but nobody did. Filed Under: Undocumented Wins Lottery.
Falls apart in the washing machine
The store’s employee, Esperanza Hernández, told the Whittier Daily News that a woman came Wednesday and told workers that she had kept the ticket in her pants and that it was destroyed in the washing machine.
The store manager told TKLA-TV that video from one of the surveillance cameras shows how the woman, whom the store’s staff knows, bought the ticket. A copy of the video was turned over to California lottery authorities, he added. Filed Under: Undocumented Wins Lottery.
Lottery Ticket: Winning Numbers
The woman’s claim will be investigated, said lottery spokeswoman Cathy Johnston. The winning numbers were 23, 36, 12, 31 and 13, and the mega number 10. The prize of 26 million dollars can be collected in annuities or in a single cash payment of 19.7 million.
Those responsible for the raffle state that if a person believes they are the winner, they must complete a form to claim the prize. But if someone loses a ticket, they must prove that they were the owner, with a photograph of the front and back of the ticket, for example, added. Filed Under: Undocumented Wins Lottery.