$162 Million Claimed

Got this email from Brian who was easing the misery of being back in law school:

SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio (AP) -- A Cleveland woman has told police she picked the
winning numbers for the $162 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot but lost
the ticket before the drawing, according to a police report.

Elecia Battle told police she dropped her purse as she left the Quick Shop
Food Mart last week after buying the ticket. She said she realized after the
drawing last Tuesday that the ticket was missing.

The Ohio Lottery said the winning ticket was sold at the store, about 15
miles east of Cleveland.

After news of Battle's police report spread Monday night, several people
wielding flashlights walked through snow and braved frigid temperatures to
try to find the ticket in the store parking lot.

"I decided to come back to see if I could find the winning ticket," said
LaVerne Coleman, 57, who says she would keep the winnings if she found the
ticket.

Police say Battle was in tears when she came to the station Friday to file
the report and did not hesitate when asked to write down the winning
numbers.

"We don't believe that she's fabricating it, but there's no real way of
knowing other than going on her word," Lt. Kevin Nieter told Cleveland's
WEWS-TV on Monday.

Nieter said information Battle knew about when the ticket was bought and how
the numbers were picked make her story credible. She told police that the
numbers -- 12, 18, 21, 32 and 46 and Mega Ball 49 -- represented family
birthdays and ages.

The winning ticket was sold to someone who chose the numbers, not someone
who let the machine pick.

Nieter said Battle may be out of luck if someone else picked up the lone
winning ticket.

"Whoever has the ticket has the right to stake the claim to the winning
jackpot. You can file all the police reports you want but it's not going to
help," he said.

Ohio Lottery spokeswoman Mardele Cohen said that if someone else came in
with the ticket, Battle could try to get a temporary restraining order in
court to block the winnings from being paid.

The winner has six months from the drawing to claim the largest jackpot in
state history. If the money isn't claimed by June 27, it goes to Ohio and 10
other states that participate in the game.

And this morning I saw this on CNN's site

Someone turned in a valid ticket for the $162 million Mega Millions multistate lottery jackpot, the Ohio Lottery said Tuesday, a day after a woman claimed she lost the winning ticket outside the convenience store where it was sold.

Ohio Lottery spokeswoman Mardele Cohen said the winner would be revealed at an 11:30 a.m. EST press conference. Cohen would not comment on whether the winner was Elecia Battle, the woman who filed a police report saying she lost the ticket last week.

For the sake of Brian's happiness, I do hope that Ms. Battle really did lose the winning ticket, which someone else found and claimed.

UPDATE: Turns out that Ms. Battle is but a sad, pathetic fraud.

A woman turned in the winning $162 million Mega Millions lottery ticket Tuesday, saying she came forward sooner than planned because she was angered by another woman's claim that she bought the ticket and lost it.

Jemison said she was not worried about Battle's claim because she knew she had a valid ticket.

"First of all I want to clear up a few things that have come out in the press. One of them is that I've been playing these numbers for about two years," she said.

Ohio Lottery Director Dennis Kennedy said officials were sure that Jemison is the rightful owner of the ticket, saying she provided a receipt from the convenience store marking the time the ticket was sold.