Many lotto players felt the wind taken out of their sails when a Los Angeles convenience store apparently sold the winning ticket. With a total of $1.08 billion, there’s not aa single person that wouldn’t have wanted to win it. Then again, some people would just prefer 15 minutes of fame. Or 15 seconds in this case. As a woman came into the convenience store while camera crews were present and began hugging, crying, and celebrating as though she had the winning ticket. However, she refused to talk with new crews and promptly slipped out the door and ran away. The reason being she wasn’t the winner.
While the convenience store did, in fact, sell the winning ticket, the winner has yet to show up. KTLA 5 newsman Eric Spillman attempted to interview the woman, but she made a brisk escape. “She came in here and she screamed,” he reported. “She hugged people in the store and then she ran away. She claims that she has the winning Powerball jackpot ticket.” Granddaughter of store owner Nabor Herrera, Sarai Palacios was equally bewildered by the behavior.
“She didn’t win. I’m not sure why she did that. I guess she just wanted to be on TV,” Palacios said. “We don’t know who the winner is yet. They still haven’t come forward.”
Herrera himself was quite surprised when he arrived to open his store the morning of June 20th. News crews were already there waiting for him. Herrera is also a winner, because the California Lottery provides the winning store with a bonus. In this case, a $1 million prize.
