Put your winning tickets in a safe place!
By Kate Northrop
LAKE TOXAWAY, N.C. — A North Carolina Lottery player won $100,000 from a scratch-off and thought to put her winning ticket in the most secure spot imaginable — taped onto her leg.
Pamela Lunsford of Rosman was elated to find out that her scratch-off lottery ticket was worth a $100,000 prize but was even more worried about the prospect of misplacing it. So, she taped it to her leg.
"I can lose a purse or a book bag, but I can't lose my leg," Lunsford reasoned.
The winning ticket was one of three that she purchased at the Lake Toxaway Trading Post on Rosman Highway in Lake Toxaway, and surprisingly, all three of them were winners. Her first ticket won her $100 while the second ticket was worth $30, but it was the third lottery ticket that warranted a creative spot for safekeeping.
In theory, taping the ticket to her leg would be safer than trying to kneecap a thief.
"I was really excited that I won $130," the winner told the Lottery. "When I realized that I won on the last ticket, I started shaking. I was in total shock."
The ticket garnering the largest prize was from the $20 "Winter Winnings" instant game, a circular card resembling a wreath. It cost an arm and a leg, but boy did it pay off nicely.
With the most lucrative lottery ticket safely in her possession, she legged the ticket over to Lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Tuesday to collect her prize. She brought home $70,756 after federal and state taxes.
"Something like this, it's life-changing for me," the 60-year-old said.
Right after discovering her win, Lunsford remarked that she treated her kids to a nice dinner of crab legs in Asheville.
Lunsford claimed the last of the two second-tier prizes of $100,000 available in the "Winter Winnings" game, which launched in November. There are two out of four top prizes of $1 million left and eight out of 20 third-tier prizes of $10,000 remaining in the game.
There are things called "safe deposit boxes" in banks.
LOL
The safest way to play is online. You can't loose your ticket, your ticket is automatically checked, with prize money credited to your online account. The Western Australia State Lottery is a perfect example. It has a great App, where you can store your chosen numbers. To enter your stored numbers, just press PLAY, REVIEW and CONFIRM. I couldn't go back to paper tickets.
It was a SCRATCH OFF ticket.
"safe deposit boxes"
If I win a jackpot the ticket will definitely spend some time in my bank's vault while I get things squared away, but how long do you need to hang on to a ticket that's worth 100k? I doubt many people will spend money consulting various professionals or creating an LLC or trust, so about the worst case is winning late on Friday and waiting through a holiday weekend to claim on Tuesday morning. I wouldn't be going out with the ticket unnecessarily, so in the absence of a good safe at home I'd just stay put for a few days. I'll also note that if you can't go to lottery HQ to claim the ticket as soon as you find out it's winner you may not b able to go to the bank anyway. Even if you can get to the bank the two trips required seem like a lot of unnecessary overhead for 3 or 4 days of protection.
"I can't lose my leg,"
Plenty of people have proven that's not true, but it's pretty uncommon. What's certain is that if you can escape a car wreck, house fire, or other mishaps you won't be leaving the ticket behind unless you do leave your leg behind. If you were to get robbed it's also very unlikely you'd lose the ticket. I'd want to wrap it with an acid free paper and then cling wrap (and still remember not to shower while it's on my leg), but especially for driving to lottery HQ it seems like one of the safer strategies you could choose.
FWIW, one of the earliest huge jackpot wins was some guys from Ohio winning about $300 million. A couple of guys were taking the ticket to Indiana while others went to consult a lawyer. The lawyer sent some of the guys to bring the others back and arranged to have an armored car transport the ticket. That's almost certainly unnecessary overkill, but the two guys were basically driving around with $100 million in cash. I've got no idea what it costs, but unlike a safe deposit box an armored car service will be bonded and you'll have some potential for recovering the money if something does happen to the ticket beyond the modest limits of your homeowner insurance.
IDK about NCEL, but Instant on-line tickets here are different than those you can be in the store. They are not available as both on-line or physical tickets.
Yes, on-line in KY is great but not sure when it purges previous purchases. After inactivity have noticed the "Replay last purchase" will not work.
Remember that her ticket is a physical, not a virtual ticket.
Put it in an envelope. Put it in a nice safe place you know where it would be found and don't tell anyone.
LMAO, with her rationale of safe keeping I'm willing to bet she goes to the bank with the check and has them pay her in rolled coin.
I guess she didn't take shower... ooops