I went to the lottery machines in 10Box on Wednesday. I got my intended tickets from the left machine. Just as I finished a lady stepped up to the right machine. Well. That meant I had to wait to cash in my winner and get tickets out of that one. She didn't take too long. She was probably in her 50s. A stick of a woman, with bleached blond hair, wearing black tights and flip-flops. I thought nothing of it, just waited my turn.
I scanned my winner, and made my selections. When I was picking them up out of the trough, I got my $3 ticket, my $5 crossword, and then my $10 ticket. WAIT A MINUTE! What was that behind my $10 ticket? Huh. It was a $5 Silver 7s ticket. I don't play those. Occasionally, I send one to Genius. Well.
In the past, I've told the cashiers when I found a ticket in the machine. They said there's not really anything they can do about it. So I've left the tickets in the trough, just in case the buyer came back to look for it. I've also mentioned how I've been missing tickets from these machines. The tickets seem to get stuck, and don't fall into the trough. I've since made sure to look over my tickets before leaving. And swipe my hand up in the falling area of the trough.
This time, I took that ticket. I considered it payback for the several that I've missed.
On my way out, I looked for the Stick Woman. She was way down the parking spaces, almost at the end, getting into her car. I had nabbed the closest handicap space. I figured she wouldn't hear or respond if I started hollering, "Ma'am! Ma'am!"
I climbed into T-Hoe, and sat for a few minutes, writing on the back so I knew where my tickets came from. It doesn't pay to buy the same ticket at the same place soon after having a winner. Better safe than sorry. I figured that if Stick Woman came walking back to enter the store, I would put down my window and holler to ask if she was missing a ticket
Stick woman never came back. After a few minutes, she left her parking space. It might not even have been her ticket. Who knows how long that ticket had been hanging up, until my $10 ticket came down that side and knocked it loose.
Anyhoo... I scratched that Silver 7s ticket. It was a loser. So I didn't really defraud anybody out of a winner. I did them a favor, really! I did their scratching, to uncover a loser...
At least The Universe threw me that bone. Although a dry bone that might have been baking in a desert for years, or buried by a dog for a century.
Thanks, Universe. It's the thought that counts.
Hi Val, at least you didn't have to feel guilty if you had won anything on that $5.00 Silver ticket. I hope you won something on your other tickets:)
ReplyDeleteI won $20 on a $3 ticket, so that was pretty good.
DeleteI didn't know those machines dropped the tickets out, I thought you chose and the cashier pulled them from the back, tearing them off the roll, like they do here. Good thing you always check what you get!
ReplyDeleteIt's a vending machine, no attendant. If it jams up, you have to get an employee's attention. Good luck with that while leaving your money/scanned winner credit showing on the machine! Then that employee has to find a manager with a key, to open up the machine.
DeleteSome machines, like at 10Box and Country Mart, are electronic. You tap on the screen on a picture of the ticket you want, and a menu drops down to select how many. Then you hear the machine rip off the ticket, and it falls down.
The machine at Save A Lot has a clear plastic piece over a sample ticket, and you push that in, and a ticket falls down. I think they are already torn apart and stacked in this kind, because you don't hear the tearing. Both machines also print and dispense draw tickets.