Swedish Teenager Shoplifts a Lottery Ticket....
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:08 PM

...and he wins. Or rather, he loses. Or maybe he wins. At any rate, the scratch off card had the winning three clover symbols, guaranteeing a payoff of at least $150,000 to be doled out over the next ten years, with the further possibility of a much higher payoff. Surveillance tapes gave the shoplifter away, however, and the store manager went to the boy's home and collected the winning ticket. Looks like the manager won't have a valid claim to the loot either, despite his hopes, as the ticket is not really a winner unless it was first sold. The only way the boy might come out a winner, sort of, is that it is not yet known whether charges will be filed.

In other lottery news, today's Chicago Tribune had a front page story (registration required) about a fellow who twenty years ago won the then-biggest North American lottery jackpot to date, $40 million. (He -- or rather his father -- purchased his winning ticket fair and square.) The article's theme is what regular folks he and his family are. (His wife agreed to marry him just before he hit the jackpot.) Sure, strangers dun him for donations, he won't let his picture appear in the paper, his brother, a co-winner along with the dad, wouldn't be interviewed for the story, and he retired at age 29, but he's jes' folks like the rest of us. What do you mean, you detect a hint of envy in Vice Squad's voice?

Labels: lottery, Sweden, teens