A landscape gardener who found a $1 million New York lottery scratchcard has been told he can keep the money. Twenty-seven-year-old Marvine Rosales-Martinez, of Hicksville, Long island, found the Win $1,000 a Week for Life, scratchcard in November 2012, while doing some yard work for a client in Bayville. He was busy blowing some leaves when he noticed the soggy scratchcard. "I still don't know what made me pick it up," he told the New York Post.
After he had dried out his windfall Rosales-Martinez rushed it to his local New York Lottery office and the card was confirmed a winner, but lottery officials were unsure of his entitlement to the prize so they had to look further into the matter before they could hand over the money.
"A standard and thorough internal security investigation found no reason to believe that the ticket wasn’t rightfully the property of Mr Martinez," said a spokesman for the New York State Gaming Commission. "There was no report of theft or of a ticket being misplaced."
The investigation took so long Rosales-Martinez forgot all about the life-changing find until he received a phone call three weeks ago and was invited to pick up the check. He has chosen to take the prize as a lump sum of $515,612 (after taxes), but the level-headed landscaper said the lottery winnings would not change the way he lives and he plans to continue working six days a week.
After he had dried out his windfall Rosales-Martinez rushed it to his local New York Lottery office and the card was confirmed a winner, but lottery officials were unsure of his entitlement to the prize so they had to look further into the matter before they could hand over the money.
"A standard and thorough internal security investigation found no reason to believe that the ticket wasn’t rightfully the property of Mr Martinez," said a spokesman for the New York State Gaming Commission. "There was no report of theft or of a ticket being misplaced."
The investigation took so long Rosales-Martinez forgot all about the life-changing find until he received a phone call three weeks ago and was invited to pick up the check. He has chosen to take the prize as a lump sum of $515,612 (after taxes), but the level-headed landscaper said the lottery winnings would not change the way he lives and he plans to continue working six days a week.
