Bogus
Lottery Winner
Newspaper Prints Wrong Numbers
By Daniel Muniz
When Ulysee Maillot of Montreal Canada opened up the Sunday
newspaper, The Montreal Gazette, to check his lottery numbers, his
jaw dropped to the ground. He won the lotto.
Canadians were already in a wild frenzy because the nation’s
second largest jackpot in history for $42 million was up for grabs.
There were indeed four winners to this sizable prize. Wining tickets
were sold in Kitchener, two in Toronto, and most importantly to
Maillot, one in Quebec.
At age 62, Ulysee Maillot was already planning out his retirement
and thinking of ways to spend his lottery proceeds. And more than
likely, he was probably preparing a few choice words to say to
certain people. Unfortunately for Maillot, his euphoria was
short-lived.
Yes, his lottery numbers did match the newspaper’s numbers except
that The Montreal Gazette had mistakenly printed the wrong numbers.
Understandably, Maillot was crushed. He told Global Television:
And since Maillot feels that somebody still has to pay, he has
hired a lawyer to extract some sort of compensation.
Naturally, he cannot go after the lottery itself because they
legitimately drew the numbers and they have nothing to do with how
the press or anyone else disseminates that information. Obviously,
the culprit is The Montreal Gazette. After all, it was their bogus
numbers in their misprint that caused the pain and suffering.
However, every single media source has disclaimers and terms of
service agreements in their publications that explicitly warn
against such things.
And besides, I am also a person who is naturally skeptical of the
press in the first place. Although some people take everything they
hear from the media hook, line, and sinker, I have a level of
skepticism about anything I read in a newspaper or web page or see
on a news broadcast. Way too often, the media has made wild untrue
errors before and they will continue to do so for the rest of their
existence.
But I do sympathize with Maillot.
I too would be emotionally devastated if the same thing were to
happen to me as perhaps for millions of others. I am a paycheck to
paycheck man and getting the rug pulled from underneath would crush
me. I also believe that I would not be able to sleep or eat for
weeks until I got over it. I may not have a heart condition but I do
know that there would be a lot of mental anguish and physical agony
on my part.
And I will admit that I have actually been an instigator of such
pain and suffering before but of course on a far lesser scale.
Years ago I was preparing a massive mail out of Christmas cards
to friends and co-workers. But that year I decided to include a
“Scratch Off” lottery card inside every envelope. However, each
“scratch off” was a bogus game card even though it looked authentic
and legitimate. Upon scratching off the fake game cards, they would
reveal a $50,000 winner in lottery prize money. The back of the
cards also had some smart aleck disclaimers like, “valid only in you
dreams” and “redeemable by the tooth fairy” as well as other such
mocking descriptions.
Shortly after everyone received their Christmas cards, I was
barraged by a series of nasty and obscene phone calls from my
friends and colleagues. I cannot print exactly what they said but it
was pretty foul and vile.
One buddy of mine explained that he felt a huge sense of relief
in that he was going to apply all of the winnings towards bills and
to his mortgage. And then his wife read the back of the card. He was
then in deep shock instead of anger although he still told me off.
Another friend fired a litany of obscenities when I picked up the
phone. His reaction was pure anger. His wife later explained to me
how he was rather philosophical after he scratched off the game
card. He told her that he had never won anything like this in his
entire life and he pondered his own existence about whether or not
he was actually entitled to win such a big prize. And then his wife
read the back of the card.
A former co-worker of mine, who was a quiet religious woman, told
me how she was screaming and hollering in her kitchen. It took a
while for her husband to calm her down and he too then read the back
of the card. But this was one of the few reactions in which someone
found the humor in it.
One co-worker immediately walked up to my office cube in the huge
cube farm of the large mortgage bank I once worked at. He had a
deranged look on his face but he laughed. He explained that only for
a few seconds did he think that this was legit but then he focused
on where the game card actually came from so he immediately read the
back of it. This guy was a talented software developer with a sharp
analytical mind and he was also well aware of my antics and of my
off the cuff sense of humor so he simply could not take it
seriously.
Perhaps that is what surprised me the most. That is that nearly
everyone did take the counterfeit game card seriously. They were
shaken and rather upset when they learned the truth even though they
had been aware of my clowning around for years. But because it
involved money, the outcome was totally out of the ordinary.
And at the time, I was also a very different person too. Back
then, I was a young bachelor living comfortably in a small
apartment. Life was carefree and I had few bills even though my
income was an entry-level professional type. Today represents a
stark change in my personality because I am now married with kids
and with car and mortgage payments along with plenty of other bills
to pay.
Although I would still be skeptical if I scratched off a winning
game card I also think I now understand why so many individuals who
are traumatized by incidents like this and perhaps even why some
become easy prey to rip-offs like the Nigerian money transfer scam.
Not that all people are idiots but you definitely view money so much
differently when you are no longer living a free-spirited lifestyle
but instead have enormous responsibilities and financial burdens to
deal with.
What Ulysee Maillot experienced in not really winning the lottery
is funny and tragic all at the same time but I would never want to
go through something like that. It would be emotional draining and
likewise, I do not want to scratch off any bogus game cards either.
We want your opinion! Tell us what you thought about
this article. Click the
Your Feedback menu item to send us
your comments.
