A Florida woman has missed out on a $1,000 lottery win when her ticket, send by certified mail to the state’s lottery headquarters, was lost by the USPS. Sue Burgess says that Florida Lottery officials in Tallahassee told her “no ticket, no prize” following her second-chance win on July 29, according to WFLA.
- There was only a limited amount of time to turn in the ticket. The second chance lottery draw gives winners the option of either dropping the ticket office in person, which wasn’t possible due to the coronavirus pandemic or mailing it into the headquarters via certified mail. Burgess went with the latter, but thanks to USPS, that seems to have been a terrible choice.
- The ticket did at least make it to Tallahassee. Burgess checked the online tracking for the ticket and saw that it had reached a post office facility in Tallahassee on the morning of August 12. However, it never actually got to the Lottery headquarters. What the hell went wrong?
- Burgess called Lottery officials but it was bad news. They told her that they couldn’t pay her prize out without the ticket and that if the ticket couldn’t be located, the money would go to another winner. That’s so messed up! Especially since there’s only a one-week window to get the ticket in and the office didn’t call her to notify her of the win until a few days into that week, leaving her precious time to get the ticket in.
- The post office is apparently investigating. While they’ve apologized for the “inconvenience” caused by the lost lottery ticket, the USPS isn’t sure what happened to the envelope containing the lottery ticket. “That’s why you chose certified mail,” Burgess told WFLA. “With COVID, I understand the mail is a little bit slow. But for safety sake, certified mail usually has priority.”
- Lottery officials say if the ticket does ever turn up, they’ll pay her out. Thanks for bending the rules, I guess?
