Mother recieves $162m US lottery prize
A mother claimed a massive American lottery jackpot today, dismissing claims by another woman who earlier said she had lost the ticket.
Hospital telephonist Rebecca Jemison was presented with a cheque by Mega Millions lottery officials in Ohio.
Lottery officials said they were “satisfied” that she was the legitimate owner of the ticket. After tax Mrs Jemison won $162m (€127m).
But earlier, another woman, Elecia Battle, 40, said she had bought – and lost - the ticket.
She told police that she had dropped her purse and spilled the contents after buying the ticket at a store in Ohio last week.
Only after the numbers were drawn did the pharmacy worker realise that the ticket was missing – presumably still on the car park of the shop.
According to her police report, she bought the ticket “along with five Double Doubler scratch offs, pop and a bag of chips”.
The report said: “She then exited the store to the lot, to her vehicle and dropped her black purse which contained the ticket.
“Items from inside the purse fell out with this ticket.
“The next day at home, she and her family checked the paper, saw the numbers and looked for the ticket. The ticket could not be found.”
News reports of the loss sparked a hunt for the ticket at the car park of the shop, about 15 miles from Cleveland, and people scrabbled through litter and snow.
