Wheel of Fortune : He Mistakenly Trashed a $5,000 Winning Ticket

For a sadder but wiser Diego Salas, California’s new lottery is a nagging reminder of what might have been.

He could have sent $1,000 to a sick niece in Chihuahua, Mexico, he says, to help pay medical bills.

He might have bought a pickup truck to replace the old car he drives now.

He could have had a fleeting brush with fame as one of the lottery’s big first-day winners.

Instead, Salas spent much of the lottery’s opening hours rummaging through the trash cans at Friendly Hills Bowl in Whittier looking for the winning $5,000 ticket he says he threw away because he thought the three little money symbols had to appear in a row.

Others Made Same Mistake

It’s a mistake that has caused some other lottery players around the state to discard winning tickets, lottery officials say, including another $5,000 winner who ripped the valuable card to pieces before he figured out the game. (The lottery paid that one.)

“I thought it was played another way,” Salas recalls glumly. “I thought they all had to be in the same line.”

The 46-year-old janitor, who works at the bowling alley, says he celebrated the lottery’s opening day by buying $40 worth of tickets and was busy scratching them off when he hit the three $5,000 markers. He showed it to a friend, who also didn’t know the rules, and then threw the ticket away along with the others.

‘You’ve Thrown Out $5,000!’

A short time later, the friend returned.

“Show me that ticket,” she said.

“I don’t have it,” Salas replied.

“Do you know you’ve thrown out $5,000!” she said.

Salas set to work sifting through several garbage cans but came up empty-handed.

Lottery officials are sympathetic to Salas’ plight, spokesman Bob Taylor says. Security officers will investigate and if enough witnesses can be found to swear there really was a $5,000 ticket, Salas may still get the money.

Salas has one consolation. He spends $3 a day on lottery tickets and, he says, “Now I know how to play it. It was a very expensive lesson.”