Retiree fooled by misprinted lottery ticket

"If it was $50 or $75, I would not think a thing about it, but this is $500,000. That's a half million."

A New Mexico man who recently retired experienced the ultimate let down when he thought he hit it big with the lottery...

Last month, John Wines bought a scratch-off lottery ticket at a gas station in Roswell. When he scratched through the surface, he had FIVE winning numbers totaling more than $500,000.
But when he went to collect, the gas station clerk said no dice.

"I took it back in and she told me , 'That is not a winner.' And they told me that it was a misprint and they don't pay off for misprints."

John told KOB-4 he called the New Mexico lottery and an official later confirmed the misprint in an email, saying, "We did find a flaw in that particular pack of tickets, and it's been reported to our printer. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I did complete a reconstruction of your ticket, and it was not a winner."

He was offered $100 in lottery tickets but no further explanation... and he's not exactly satisfied with the outcome.

"I mean, if you thought you won $500,000 and somebody tells you you didn't, and you can prove to them that you did, it's pretty stressful for somebody to say, 'No you're not getting your money.'"

In 2012 a Massachusetts man had the same unfortunate experience - except he thought he won $1 million. He bought a ticket the day before his birthday, went home, scratched it and thought he had a winner but when he went to cash in - he was sent home with nothing but a story.

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