Leslee Hobson isn't just lucky when it comes to lottery tickets. She is lucky she buys her coffee from John Martin each morning.
Hobson brought three Powerball tickets into the Circle K convenience store in Stayton, Oregon on May 29.
Martin, a clerk at the store, went through the tickets and returned her winnings of $3. One of the tickets, however, couldn't be processed.
"Something came up on the screen on the Lottery machine I'd never seen before," Martin said. "It said, ‘This is not a ticket.'"
Hobson left with her coffee and Martin tossed the tickets, but the message stayed on the lottery machine. When Martin looked closer, he saw that the prize had to be picked up at the Lottery office.
He retrieved the ticket and checked the numbers. Hobson had won $100,000.
Not knowing where to find her, but knowing she came into the Circle K each morning, he pocketed the ticket and waited for the next day when Hobson came in.
Hobson was in skeptical at first: "I told him, ‘This is Memorial Day, not April Fool's Day. I don't believe you.'"
To Martin, keeping the ticket would have been the same as stealing.
"It wouldn't have been worth the $100,000 to me," he said. "I would have had to live with it. That would have made the money not worth anything."
Hobson said that she still is a working stiff but that now she's debt-free.
Martin sees a lot of Lottery losers, and he said it was nice to see someone win, especially a customer as nice as Hobson.
Hobson gave Martin a $200 tip after he returned her lottery ticket. Martin used the money on necessities, he said.
I think it was honest and right what Martin did,but $200 come on!!,his honesty was worth more than that.
tru a couple thousand would have been good but 200 give me a break...
Hey,
It was good to see honesty
to help balance all the dishonesty we read about from store clerks --- Scanning the scratch offs prior to selling them, telling people their tickets were not winners when they were, etc...
We can argue how much she shoulda gave him initially, but I'll wager that after she sits on some of that money a while, and she continues to frequent that Circle K and visits with Mr. Martin , she just may help him out a little bit more. I would.
Oh, and one more thing- people continue to amaze me by handing their tickets to clerks without checking them first. This would never have a chance of dishonesty if players would do their due diligence.
She definitely was lucky to be a regular there. Congrats on the win, Leslee!
200 bucks
$200
Guy did what he thought was best, hopefully not expecting to be rewarded for it. He got 200 US as a bonus. We can think it should have been more, or we can think it should have been less, but it was Hobson's money to do with as seems best.
I see big winners on the blackjack tables color up for a few thousand when they bought in for a couple of hundred.... some don't leave a thing for the dealer, some give a pittance and occasionally someone will feel some serious generousity. I saw a guy once give two black chips to every other player at his table and $500 to the dealer.
We all have different views on how things should be, but none of it's owed. Tips are a lousy way to do business, usually, from the perspective of the tippee.
Jack
it's always nice to bless other people with our blessings.
$2,000 would have been real nice
nice to see some honesty. $200 crap. customers need access to scanning machines.
He should have gotten $ 1,000 at least.
$2,000 would have been real nice
$90,000 would have been nicer.
Jack
He did not deserve a tip at all for being so stupid and causing such a needless problem for the lottery customer. I don't believe he could not read a simple (english) message anyhow. The lottery needs to crack down on the poor job their agents are doing and retrain them!
He did not deserve a tip at all for being so stupid and causing such a needless problem for the lottery customer. I don't believe he could not read a simple (english) message anyhow. The lottery needs to crack down on the poor job their agents are doing and retrain them!
Problem is they have to hire their employees from the general population. That's further complicated by the fact that it's a lousy job, poor pay and they have to deal with customers drawn from the general population.
Tough gig, all the way around.
I have mixed feelings about whether the person deserved a tip or not, but I definitely think the trash man who got cheated out of his winnings ought to have gotten something.
Jack