“My lottery ticket was worth $6.8 billion”… Spanish man dies without knowing he won

A lottery retailer in Spain has been sentenced to three years and six months in prison for defrauding a customer by stealing a winning lottery ticket worth 4.7 million euros (approximately $6.8 billion won at the time of the win).

The incident occurred in 2012 when a customer asked the retailer in A Coruña to check several tickets. Among them was a top-prize 'Primitiva' ticket. The retailer falsely claimed none of the tickets were winners and kept the winning one.

During the trial, the retailer claimed to have found the ticket by chance and argued for their innocence. However, court records from the lottery terminal showed that multiple tickets were scanned together, and the winning numbers were reissued for a subsequent draw. This evidence proved that the customer had entrusted multiple tickets to the retailer simultaneously.

Despite over 300 individuals claiming ownership of the winning ticket, their claims were found to be fraudulent. Police traced the purchase history and identified the actual winner as a local resident who had consistently played the same numbers for an extended period. Tragically, this individual passed away in 2014, unaware of their substantial winnings. The court ordered the retailer's claim to the prize money to be forfeited, and the full 4.7 million euros were to be paid to the deceased winner's heirs.