Find a winner lottery ticket in the trash, is the money yours to claim?

[Mr. Clean]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/03...est=latestnews If you throw something in the trash, then that ticket no longer belongs to you if you ask me.

[Neil]

I can't vote anything other than "unsure" in your poll as it doesn't mention/reflect the fact she'd been told the ticket wasn't a winner - If indeed that's true? If that is true then frankly I think she has a valid claim!? TBH, don't you think the logical thing would be to split it 50/50? Seems fair!? And just imagine how much money they're both wasting on lawyers! You'd also think, if the original buyer wins the case she'd give $100,000 or something to the other lady because without her, she'd have nothing!

[AcesandEights]

It's yours to share (if you're not a dick). Don't know if I'd pass that test, though

[bassman]

I can't think of a better time to use the ol', "One man's trash is another man's treasure"....

[Mr. Clean]

50/50? Lady number one threw it in the trash. No way to prove the machine gave an error reading so her claim carries no weight. Even if it was the machine's fault then the lotto company is the one responsible for forking out another million not lady number two.

[LouCipherr]

I have to be misunderstanding this article or something. So let me get this straight: 1) Woman A buys the ticket, machine tells her it's not a winner, throws it in the trash. 2) Woman B comes by the trash can, picks out the ticket and finds out it's a winner. 3) Woman A says, "Hey, wait, that was MY ticket!" 10 months later?? Here's my question: How does Woman A know that the ticket that Woman B found was hers? If she believed the machine that told her when she bought it that it wasn't a winner, how could she possibly come out 10 months later and say "THAT WAS MY TICKET!!" And how could she ever possibly prove it? Sounds to me like Woman B should be the winner in this situation. Also, from the article: "White County Judge Thomas Hughes concluded that Duncan ("Woman A") bought the winning ticket, even though lottery records and store security video didn't synch up to the precise timing of the purchase. He ruled that Duncan never abandoned her right to claim the winnings." So wait, they can't even PROVE without a reasonable doubt that Woman A bought the ticket, yet they're saying she didn't abandon her right to claim the winnings?! I said it in the piracy thread, I'll say it again here: the justice system here is completely FUBAR'd - and the Judge that ruled that Woman A should get her money even though she discarded the ticket - and now can't prove it was indeed hers based on the information in the article - should be removed from the bench. Unless there is undeniable proof (again, that "beyond a resonable doubt" thing that we hang on to here in the U.S.) that Woman A bought the ticket and the ticket found was indeed hers, they should not be ruling in her favor.

[Sammich]

This whole thing is just ridiculous. The first woman voluntarily gave up possession of the ticket the moment she left the store property after throwing it in the trash. I highly doubt the machine malfunctioned. From my experience, either it reads the barcode and gives a "sorry not a winner", the amount won or it comes back with a read error message. What is scary is that this could affect me as for the last year I have been taking discarded scratch off tickets from the trash can at the local store where I buy my lotto tickets. The reason being is that the serial # from these tickets can be used to enter into a "second chance" drawing that is held through the lottery website. If I win, I wonder if some balloon knot is going to try to pull the same thing.

[Mike70]

I can't think of a better time to use the ol', "One man's trash is another man's treasure".... or the e-trade baby commercial, "you know your chances of winning are same as being attacked by a polar bear and a regular bear on the same day." -- -------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:27 PM ---------- I said it in the piracy thread, I'll say it again here: the justice system here is completely FUBAR'd - and the Judge that ruled that Woman A should get her money even though she discarded the ticket - and now can't prove it was indeed hers based on the information in the article - should be removed from the bench. Unless there is undeniable proof (again, that "beyond a resonable doubt" thing that we hang on to here in the U.S.) that Woman A bought the ticket and the ticket found was indeed hers, they should not be ruling in her favor. esp. when our legal system has ruled over and over again that things thrown away in the trash do not even fall under the protection of the 4th amendment. if the cops are investigating you, your trash is one thing they don't need a warrant to search. it has been voluntarily abandoned. my question is what the frak was this judge smoking and where can you, moon and i get some, hole up in that new cabin of yours and get stoned to the point where we are all abducted by aliens. moon gets the probing though...

[LouCipherr]

esp. when our legal system has ruled over and over again that things thrown away in the trash do not even fall under the protection of the 4th amendment. if the cops are investigating you, your trash is one thing they don't need a warrant to search. it has been voluntarily abandoned. Ah yes, I forgot about this. You're 100% correct. +1, Mike! my question is what the frak was this judge smoking and where can you, moon and i get some, hole up in that new cabin of yours and get stoned to the point where we are all abducted by aliens. moon gets the probing though... I don't know, but I'll start looking. We can move into my place on June 1st, and I am so ready. Moon is definitely getting the probing though. I think he likes that kinda thing.

[Mike70]

Moon is definitely getting the probing though. I think he likes that kinda thing. or how 'bout "greetings earthling, we've come for a piece." you do realize moon is gonna shred us both once he reads this.

[LouCipherr]

or how 'bout "greetings earthling, we've come for a piece." you do realize moon is gonna shred us both once he reads this. Realize? Hell, I'm counting on it!

[EvilNed]

I'm with Lou and the majority. I'm just left wondering how they could prove that this ticket was the ticket she threw away? This seems like an open and shut case to me. There are so many unknown variables that cannot be proven that when presented with this, any lawyer should just go "Listen, lady... You don't have a case." This is just absurd. Why do things like this go on? What's happened to us as a race? What depths have we stooped too?