Sore Loser Or Victim?: Man Claims Billion Dollar Powerball Ticket Was Stolen From Him

A California man claims a winning Powerball ticket was stolen from him and now wants someone to pay. 

Per TMZ, Jose Rivera claims that he picked up a ticket on November 7th from Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, California. Rivera says that same day, he was victimized by a thief named Reggie, who stole his ticket. Rivera tried reasoning with Reggie to regain his Powerball but was told the slip had losing numbers. However, Reggie said he’d give Rivera half the winnings if he won. Rivera took his concerns to local law enforcement and the California Lottery to investigate. 

In a shocking plot twist, Reggie was not found to be the man in possession of the winning prize. Instead, a separate man named Edwin Castro cashed in the winning ticket worth $2.04 billion. He opted to take a lump sum of $997.6 million. He requested another investigation into both Castro and Reggie to no avail. Now that Castro has the money, Rivera has resorted to filing a lawsuit, identifying both men as billion-dollar bandits. How or if Rivera knew these men before the fallout remains unclear. 

The California Lottery responded to the suit on Thursday, confirming that their agency does not investigate criminal activity but is confident that Castro is the rightful prizewinner. 

Rivera is demanding that he be declared the true winner and wants to be compensated for every dollar that he missed out on.