QCOSTARICA – From the truly unbelievable, a 75-year-old woman, a regular at playing the lottery, carried around her winning ticket for 16 days and then luck struck her for a second time, an honest lottery vendor who didn’t take advantage of her.
It was on Thursday, December 3, when the senior asked an authorized vendor of the Lottery to review her ticket. To her and his surprise, it was a winner of no more and no less than ¢135 million colones (US$223,000).
The man, Felipe Díaz, who works a lottery vending kiosk in San Jose, said he was so surprised at the prize amount the lady had been carried in her purse for more than two weeks and was scared to tell her how much she had won, telling her she had to go to the Lottery office to claim her prize because it was higher than he was authorized to pay out.
That same day she want to the offices of the Junta de Protección Social (JPS), the government agency that runs the lotteries, who got the surprise of her life.
The JPS did not reveal the woman’s name for security reasons, saying only she is a resident of Desamparados and that she had bought the lottery ticket in Turrialba.
The JPS has paid out this year ¢4,57 billion colones in prizes.
In the past, unscrupulous vendors have taken advantage of the situation, mostly the elderly, into paying out a fraction of the real prize, persons not knowing that th payments of high prizes are only made in the offices of the JPS.