Forgotten, Then Stolen, Lottery Ticket Pays Off

A migrant Mexican worker, cashing in five lottery tickets he had forgotten about for a year, won a $182,000 grand prize but almost had it snatched from under his nose, Mexico City’s attorney general’s office said.

Lazaro Gonzalez Rojas, 53, a poorly paid cook’s assistant in Mexico City, found the ticket stubs on May 11 after they had been buried for over a year in luggage, the attorney general’s office said.

His luck almost ran out, however, when a lottery outlet operator told him they were worthless, took the tickets and claimed the jackpot, the statement said.

Gonzalez Rojas later realized he had been tricked and persuaded police to arrest the woman and her nephew, the statement said. She paid him up in full.