Have you ever lost $20? Sucks doesn't it? Try losing $65 million. How would you feel then? Ask Degli Martinez. The man, originally from Paraguay, had been living in New York and buying lottery tickets there since 1978. He finally hit the jackpot, in a big way, in June of 2007 when he bought some New York Lotto tickets. One of the tickets was a $65 million winner. But the tale doesn't end there. He lost the winning ticket. Degli lost $65 million.
Degli Martinez was checking his tickets at the store when he found out that he was the big winner. He got the print-out from the lottery terminal that showed he won. But somewhere in all of the excitement, Degli lost the actual ticket. All he had was the print-out that showed him to be the winner. All he could do was try to claim the money with the print-out. And so, that's what he did.
All signs pointed to Degli Martinez being the rightful owner of the money. But there was a problem. Lottery tickets are owned by the bearer, so if someone else showed up with the actual ticket there would be a problem. So New York Lottery wanted to give Degli the money, but they had to wait one year to see if anybody else showed up with the winning ticket. Nobody did. Thank goodness.
One year later, New York Lottery awarded Degli Martinez the $65 million. See the video below:
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Degli Martinez - Paraguay Lottery Winner's Tale Of A Lost Ticket
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Tino Sundin
Posted by: Tino Sundin
Updated at: Thursday, July 23, 2009
