Always in the last place you look
Imagine winning $200 million, but losing out on an additional $200 million. Would you be more elated that you now had generational wealth or would you be more forlorn that you didn’t have double that amount? That’s the emotional push and pull that a California man is going through, as he won $197.5 million in the Mega Millions multistate lottery, but just lost a lawsuit over a misplaced second ticket that would have gotten him another $197.5 million.
Faramarz Lahijani won the $395 million jackpot drawing on December 8, 2023, an amazing moment of life-changing luck. He claims, however, that he bought two tickets with the same winning numbers and lost one of the tickets. Thus, he was only able to redeem one of them for $197.5 million.
The California Lottery deadline to claim a jackpot is a year after the draw, so just before that deadline hit, Lahijani filed a lawsuit against the lottery to try to force the lottery to pay him the other half of the jackpot.
This week, a judge threw out the lawsuit, saying that without the second ticket, Lahijani had no claim to the other $197.5 million. Pretty cut and dry.
Need evidence
Lahijani did not say why he allegedly bought two separate tickets with the same numbers. It makes little sense that one would do that, but it could happen.
The California Lottery does know that there were two winning tickets for the December 8, 2023, and both were purchased at the same Encino Chevron gas station, the same place that Lahijani bought his one existing ticket. That is an indication that Lahijani very well may be telling the truth, but without the physical ticket, there just isn’t any proof.
“The probability that somebody buys the exact same ticket, uses the same numbers at the same store in December of 2023 you know, was it probably him? But that’s not enough. You need evidence,” KTLA 5 legal analyst Alison Triessl said.
Triessel added that Lahijani should have at least tried to claim the missing ticket earlier, rather than waiting until a few days before the deadline. Even though it would’ve been a longshot, at least there would have been time to try to figure something out.
She recommends that if people win the lottery, they take a photo of the front and back of their signed ticket, just in case they lose it. The lottery has procedures for lost ticket situations and while there is no guarantee of a positive outcome, having at least some evidence will help.
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