The Powerball jackpot has not been claimed days after a woman seems to have falsely claimed to have won the $1.08 billion prize. The woman, who remains unidentified, was seen in a mini market in downtown Los Angeles, allegedly emotional over buying the winning lottery ticket has been called a fraud.
“She didn’t win – I’m not sure why she did that,” Sarai Palacios, the granddaughter of bodega owner Nabor Herrera, told The Daily Mail. “I guess she just wanted to be on TV,” she said. “We don’t know who the winner is yet. They still haven’t come forward.”
Footage of the woman’s reaction to “winning” the lottery went viral after it appeared on local news channel KTLA last week. In it, the woman was emotional about her big win.
According to The Independent, Herrera’s daughters think the woman is the daughter of the customer who bought the ticket. While they’re speculating what happened, the state lottery has a thorough process that all winners must go through before they receive the money.
“The California Lottery will NOT know who the winner is until someone completes and turns in a claim form, which also requires producing the winning ticket,” Carolyn Becker, deputy director of Public Affairs and Communications for the California Lottery, wrote in a statement to The Independent. “The California Lottery typically does not publicly confirm or acknowledge when a prize claim has been received because there’s no way to be certain any given claim is legitimate.”
The ticket buyer must file a claim form on the California lottery website to determine the jackpot’s winner. They must include their ticket number and attach the signed original ticket with their legal name, signature, and address. Delays in processing claims may occur if a potential winner fails to provide the signed original ticket with their personal information. Once the claim is received and verified, it takes weeks for the prize to be processed. After all that, plus an interview with law enforcement, a winner is announced to the public.
Ticket sales increased the jackpot beyond its one-billion-dollar estimate, making it the sixth-largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever won.
Reporters tried to interview the woman who claimed to have won the prize but was too emotional to talk. Footage showed her running out of the store and falling to her knees while crying.
“I can’t even…I can’t,” the woman said, Inside Edition reported. “I’m scared right now; I’m so scared.”
Even though the winner of the billion-dollar prize has yet to be determined, Hererra earned a million-dollar bonus for selling the winning ticket. The store owner said he plans on using the money to expand his business and take his family on vacation to Mexico, The Independent reported.