A Stranger Returned His Lost Lottery Tickets

A Stranger Returned His Lost Lottery Tickets


An unemployed New Jersey man won a $273 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot last week after a stranger found and returned the winning ticket that he had left behind on a store counter.Get more news about 棋牌包网,you can vist loto98.com

The man, Michael J. Weirsky, told reporters on Thursday that he lost two tickets immediately after he bought them at a QuickChek in Phillipsburg, N.J., on the day before the lottery drawing. He said it was the result of “the typical cellphone deal.”

“I was paying more attention to my cellphone,” he said at a news conference. “I put the tickets down to put my money away, then I did something with my phone and just walked away.”

Mr. Weirsky had spent hours searching for the tickets when he got to his home in Alpha, N.J., near the Pennsylvania border. He was convinced they must have gotten lost there, and it was not until the next day that he decided to ask a clerk at the store if anyone had seen them.
The clerk said someone had turned them in. Then she quizzed him on what tickets he had bought before handing them over, he said. The lottery drawing was that night.

“I was very thankful there was an honest person out there because I thought it was gone,” he said.

But Mr. Weirsky, who said he spends $20 a week on quick-pick lottery tickets, said he did not realize he had the winning ticket until two days later, as a snowstorm swirled outside.

He said a friend of his mother’s called to say she thought a mutual friend of theirs had hit the jackpot. That man bought his ticket at the same store Mr. Weirsky did, and had been standing right in front of him when he did it. Mr. Weirsky called to ask if he had won.

When the man said he had not, Mr. Weirsky decided to check his own tickets using the lottery app on his phone. Then he turned to his mother in shock.

“I put the phone down, I put the ticket down, I sat there for a second — I said to my mother, ‘Hey, that just said I was the jackpot winner,’” he said. “And she’s like, ‘What’s that mean?’”
“I said, ‘I won $273 million,’” he told her. “And she was like, ‘Get the hell out of here.’”