Lotto ticket theft a hoax: Report
A 26-year-old man's claim that he was robbed of his R33 million lottery ticket by bogus policemen was a hoax, the Sunday Tribune reported on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Independent on Saturday reported that police were investigating a case of theft after the winning lottery ticket was stolen from one Sipho Ngcobo, reportedly by men dressed in police uniform, in Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal.
The ticket was allegedly stolen on Monday night on 14 October.
Its sister paper, the Sunday Tribune, reported that the winning ticket had in fact been bought at a Spar in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands town of Wartburg, and CCTV footage showed the unnamed winner jumping for joy after the win was displayed on the screen of the shop's lottery machine.
The time on the CCTV footage was 11 am -- the morning of October 14.
The newspaper quoted the unnamed winner -- a driver and father of four -- as saying that his bank accounts had been frozen as a result of the investigations launched by police.
The Tribune also quoted Wartburg Spar manager Mark Kendall-Ball as saying: "We never had such a big amount won here so we didn't really know what to do. We called the lottery hotline and they said he needed to come to Durban with his ticket.
"I know it was his ticket because he had written his name on the back. I lent him R200 to get to Durban," said Kendall-Ball.
The newspaper reported that it had not managed to contact Ngcobo.
-Sapa