In December, John Wines of Roswell, New Mexico thought he hit it big with a lottery ticket, believing he won $500,000. However, the lottery will not honor the ticket, since it was a misprint.
Wines first told his story to KOB, last week. He said that the scratch-off ticket’s winning numbers were 1 and 2. On one of the tickets he got, the ticket had two 1’s, which totalled $500,000. However, the maximum jackpot for each ticket is only $250,000.
If you look closely at the ticket Wines showed KOB, you can see that there was supposed to be a second number printed after the 1’s, to make them a double-digit losing number. However, Wines didn’t see that assumed he got a winner.
The ticket also showed that he got another 1 number with a $75 price, a 2 with $500 and another 2 for $50.
Wines, 65, told Fox News that, after scratching the ticket, he ran back into the gas station where he bought the ticket. The cashier scanned the barcode, but it wasn’t a winner at all!
“I couldn't believe it,” Wines said.
He later called up the state lottery, but they would not give him the jackpot he demanded. Instead, they were willing to give him $100 worth of tickets.
“We did find a flaw in that particular pack of tickets and it’s been reported to our printer,” an official wrote to Wines in an email. “Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I did complete a reconstruction of your ticket and it was not a winner.”
Linda Hamlin, a spokeswoman for the New Mexico lottery, explained that the printer thought they had pulled all the tickets with the error, but obviously, they missed one.
“Printing presses, I don’t care if it is the New York Times' printing press, a press that prints bumper stickers or whatever else, they are mechanical and parts will become disabled, bent, out of alignment, jammed or otherwise disabled," Hamlin told Fox News. "If it had been a winning ticket, we would have gladly paid."
That probably won’t make Wines happy, though.