A Thai woman in Sukhothai province accused her neighbour of stealing her first-prize lottery ticket, while the accused denies any wrongdoing, saying no prize was won.
The 54 year old woman, Sayan, filed a complaint at Sawankhalok Police Station, asking officers to investigate the disappearance of a lottery ticket she claimed won the first prize of 6 million baht.
Sayan told police she ordered three lottery tickets from a roadside vendor in Paknam subdistrict on May 31 and picked up the tickets on June 1. The tickets carried the numbers 579015, 173770 and 265873, and were stapled together.
After the lottery draw, Sayan said she went to a house of her neighbour, named Waew, at around 7pm and asked Waew to check the results.
According to Sayan, Waew told her that one ticket had won the first prize and congratulated her before asking to keep the tickets for prize collection. Sayan said she agreed.
However, when she returned the following day, June 2, Sayan said Waew told her the tickets had been discarded because none had won. Waew reportedly claimed the numbers were close but did not match the winning result.
Sayan said she searched the rubbish bin outside the house and found two of the tickets, but the ticket with the winning number 173770 was missing.
Waew insisted on her innocence during an interview with ThaiRath. She said she had checked the tickets using a lottery verification website and found that none were winners. She said she returned all tickets to Sayan on the same day and denied taking lottery tickets.
The lottery vendor, Jaran Phumpuang, told the media that Sayan had purchased a ticket ending in 770 from his stall, adding that it was the only ticket with that ending available at the time. The CCTV footage at the stall also showed Sayan arriving on June 1 to get her tickets.
Police are investigating the Sukhothai lottery dispute and questioning those involved, including waste collectors who handled rubbish in the area on June 2. Officers expect to conclude the case within a few days.
Sayan urged her neighbour to return the lottery ticket and promised to share some of the prize money with her, saying that she wanted the matter to be resolved.
The story Row erupts over missing first-prize lottery ticket in Sukhothai as seen on Thaiger News.
