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I must be missing something here...
When you throw something in the trash, do you not relinquish all ownership rights?
Woman who lost Ark. lotto ticket entitled to $1M
SEARCY, Ark. (AP) ? An Arkansas woman who cashed a $1 million lottery ticket may have to give up the winnings to a woman who threw away the ticket after she bought it, according to a judge's ruling Tuesday.
The judge decided that Sharon Duncan was entitled to the prize money, not Sharon Jones, who claimed the prize money after she took the ticket from a trash can of discarded lottery tickets at a convenience store in Beebe, a city about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock.
Jones' attorney, James Simpson, said he plans to appeal. Jones had testified that she already spent some of the money on a new truck and cash gifts to her children.
Simpson noted that Duncan testified she threw away the ticket after the read-out on a ticket scanner said, "Sorry. Not a winner." The attorney argued that people shouldn't be allowed to throw items away and then say, "'ooh, I want to un-abandon it.'"
"We'd have garage-sale law all over the place," he said. "It became trash when someone threw it away."
White County judge Thomas Hughes, however, said Jones never met the burden of proof that Duncan abandoned her right to claim $1 million.
"The $1 million was never found money," Hughes said.
Earlier Tuesday, Jones testified that she gathered a handful of discarded tickets from the trash can ? as she had done many times before ? and said there was no sign alerting customers not to take tickets.
That contradicted Super 1 Stop store manager Lisa Petriches' earlier testimony that she had taped a sign that read "Do not take" on the can. But a former store clerk testified that Petriches posted the sign only after Jones claimed the prize.
Petriches brought the lawsuit against Jones, and Duncan joined it after the judge said at a January hearing that she may be the true owner of the ticket. Hughes ruled that Petriches and the store's owner, Louie Dajani ? whose corporation, Summer One LLC, joined the suit ? weren't entitled to anything.
The judge instructed the winning side to write the judgment for his signature, and it will become official once Hughes signs it. Jones' attorneys will then have 30 days to file an appeal.
Hughes found that the evidence weighed in Duncan's favor that she bought the winning ticket, even though lottery records and store security video didn't synch up to the precise timing of the purchase.
Arkansas Lottery Security Chief Lance Huey testified that he investigated the circumstances of the ticket falling into Jones' hands. He said the lottery was satisfied with the investigation and awarded the prize.
Duncan's attorney, James "Red" Morgan, argued that she simply made a mistake by throwing away a $1 million ticket and that the only right she willingly parted with was to enter the ticket for the possibility of a secondary prize.
Re: I must be missing something here...
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DI don't understand how you could know that one particular ticket that was trashed was yours.
Team Dumpster Diver!
i'd have to guess it's because the property was abandoned under the idea that it wasn't a winner but that was incorrect?
as for knowing if the ticket was yours, you could probably prove it if you pick specific numbers every week and then trace them through the lottery commission. they can tell you how many times a specific combination of numbers was played. if her numbers were only played 1 time then bingo, it's your ticket.
Yeah, that's what I didn't pick up on the first time I skimmed this article. And the alleged "purchaser" has no proof...the surveillance video doesn't match up.
My Lunch Blog
I hope she wins the appeal. This is effed up.
CRAFTY ME
my read shelf:
Team Trash Lady... I hope she wins the appeal, it doesn't even seem like they can say for 100% sure it was the other woman's ticket.
If I throw away a vase or sell it at a garage sale for $1, I can't get it back when I see someone getting offered $10K for it on Antiques Roadshow. Plus, don't you surrender the property when its in the trash- isn't that why cops don't need a warrant to go through the trash outside?
I think that is more because you no longer have an expectation of privacy when you throw something into the trash (which will be collected by other people). I vaguely remember this from BARBRI, so I could be totally wrong.
This! If this precedent is set, it's going to start a LOT of lawsuits.
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.