Winner would have forgotten to check tickets if it weren't for Powerball
By Kate Northrop
HAPPY VALLEY, Ore. — An Oregon woman admitted that if it weren't for Powerball making headlines, she would not have thought to check an Oregon Lottery Raffle ticket that turned out to be worth $1 million.
If it were not for seeing Powerball come up in the news, an Oregon woman would not have bothered to check her stack of lottery tickets, one of which held the winning numbers for a $1 million prize.
Leslie Carr, 52, of Portland, carried a Tupperware container into the Fred Meyer on SE 82nd Avenue in Happy Valley, the retailer where she usually buys her lottery tickets. In the container was a stack of unchecked tickets, and hiding among the stack was a winning Oregon Lottery Raffle ticket worth $1 million.
"I had no idea I was the winner," Carr told the Lottery. "If it weren't for the billion-dollar Powerball winner making news, I would have forgot. We don't check our tickets."
One by one, she scanned at least a few dozen draw game tickets. The Raffle ticket was the very last ticket in the pile. While checking it, the machine showed her a message that said she needed to visit an Oregon Lottery office. She asked a staff member at the store to double-check the ticket.
"I heard him say, 'Oh, I can't cash this because your prize is worth over $1,000,'" she recalled. "That's when I started getting butterflies."
When Carr visited a Lottery office, she found out the winning ticket had won the $1 million top prize in the Lottery's annual Raffle in the game's March 15 drawing.
Being able to use the winnings to pay off the mortgage on the home she shares with her husband is "a dream come true," the medical receptionist remarked. She currently drives a truck with a broken windshield — a new vehicle to replace it is on her wish list as well. Lastly, she has her sights set on Hawaii as her next vacation destination.
Carr said she regularly plays the annual Raffle and has never won, but taking home the game's only $1 million top prize after all 250,000 available tickets were sold out makes up for it. The Raffle offers the best odds of any Oregon Lottery game at winning $1 million — 1 in 250,000.
Sales for Raffle tickets went live on Dec. 31, 2023, and all tickets were sold out by March 8, 2024.
Other prizes for the Raffle included 300 prizes of $500 and 1,500 prizes of $100. The overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 138.8.
Congratulations to her. Enjoy the win.
It pays to live in oblivion
Congrats!
"I had no idea I was the winner," Carr told the Lottery. "If it weren't for the billion-dollar Powerball winner making news, I would have forgot. We don't check our tickets."
Not BS. People who do not play regularly, seem to do this more often than not. I have had well educated coworkers tell me they did not check their tickets when they heard it was won someplace else. I did explain the other prizes.
And let's be honest, the odds are against winning. If they are investing in their 401ks and taking care of their family, that is #1.
This one is not an occasional player - this is a regular player.
"One by one, she scanned at least a few dozen draw game tickets. The Raffle ticket was the very last ticket in the pile"
That right there sounds like a regular player.
I will give her the benefit of doubt, but deep down I know it's all made up.
" We don't check our tickets." Reading that was annoying, why even buy tickets if you're not going to check them.
I feel the same way - if they are too busy to check the tickets - how then do they have the time to go buy them?
Especially the scratch tickets that you can't even buy online 🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️
Exactly. I'm baffled why they play the lottery. They would be better of donating to charity if they don't care about checking tickets.
CONGRATULATIONS !
The trusty Tupperware, like a Treasure Chest, congrats to the lucky lady.
Dude, people do buy containers to store their lottery tickets in hopes of getting around to checking them eventually. I guess you never heard of people who also store their lottery tickets in the glove box in their car. One guy who does this says, he only takes the tickets out of the glove box every 3 or 4 months or so when he decides to clear out his car. He did check the pile of tickets and discovered a winning ticket of 10K. Also storing tickets in containers, glove boxes and other places is one of the main reasons so many jackpots go unclaimed because people just forget about checking tickets. There was a 19 year old guy who always bought lottery tickets and threw them in on the floor in the corner of his bedroom. The tickets who stay in that spot for months at a time. One day, the guy's mom walked past his room and asked him to clean his room. He did as she asked and saw the pile of tickets on the floor. He took all the tickets to the store to check them and discovered one of the tickets was a winner worth 50K. He said if it was not for him mom asking him to clean his room, the ticket would have expired. The guy said he was going to treat his mom to a nice vacation.
"We don't check our tickets."
Is an English sentence and it does not have the same meaning as we check our tickets occasionally or we check our tickets every month, or two months or whatever.
"We don't check our tickets." Is just that. We don't.
Well said Sully
Long Live Tupperware.
I'm pretty sure there's a whole new,younger generation googling
"What is Tupperware"?