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July 5, 2001: Bob Edmonds buys a Super 7 lottery ticket with his regular numbers from the Coby Milk & Variety in Coboconk, Ont. His regular numbers are a combination of his birthday, his wife's birthday, and his son's birthday.
July 13, 2001: Bob Edmonds goes to the Westside Jug City in Fenelon Falls, Ont. to check the ticket he bought on July 5. He wins a free ticket for next week's draw, and decides that he also wants to play the Encore lottery with this ticket. He pays an additional $1 to play. Edmonds also buys another Super 7 ticket with Encore with his regular numbers.
July 27, 2001: Bob Edmonds goes to the Coby Milk & Variety to check the free Super 7 ticket with Encore he bought on July 13. The Super 7 numbers win him a free ticket, while the Encore numbers win him $250,000.
The clerk, Phyllis LaPlante, gives Edmonds his free ticket, but keeps the original ticket with the winning Encore numbers. Edmonds also buys another Super 7 ticket with Encore with his regular numbers.
July 30, 2001: Phyliss LaPlante visits the OLG Prize Office in Toronto and tries to claim the $250,000 Encore ticket as her own. Prize Office supervisor Suzy Tan fills out an Insider Win Checklist during the interview with her after they find out she works at a store that sells lottery tickets.
August 1, 2001: Phyllis and Scott LaPlante meet with Bob Edmonds and convince him to tell them how he chooses his winning tickets and where he buys his tickets. They also convince Edmonds to hand over some of his old lottery tickets with his regular numbers.
Later that day, Edmonds calls the OLG toll-free number to complain that Phyllis LaPlante had stolen his winning Encore ticket. See the record of the call from Bell Canada.
August 2, 2001: OLG investigator Chris Cooney meets with
Phyllis LaPlante to ask her to prove that the winning ticket belongs to
her. LaPlante shows Cooney the old lottery tickets that Bob Edmonds handed
to her on August 1 as proof.
From their internal records, OLG investigators knew that the winning Encore numbers were part of a free Super 7 ticket redeemed on July 13, 2001 at the Westside Jug City in Fenelon Falls, Ont. When they traced that ticket to the original one bought on July 5, they saw Edmonds's regular numbers on that ticket. Investigators looked at other tickets purchased on July 13 and July 27 around the same time that the winning Encore ticket was purchased and validated, and found tickets with Edmonds's regular numbers on them too. They concluded that whoever played Edmonds's regular numbers was therefore the owner of the winning Encore ticket.
When LaPlante showed the OLG the old lottery tickets with Edmonds' numbers on them, they decided to award her the money. However, they still had their concerns.
August 24, 2001: OLG presents $250,000 cheque to Phyllis LaPlante. She shows up with her husband Scott.
August 26, 2001: Bob Edmonds reads article in Lindsey Daily Post about Phyllis LaPlante winning the $250,000 prize.
Early September 2001: Bob Edmonds calls the Ontario Provincial Police to file a complaint that Phyllis LaPlante had stolen his winning ticket.
September 3, 2001: The OPP contacts OLG investigator Frank Sirianni informing him that a complaint has been filed by Bob Edmonds claiming that Phyllis LaPlante's winning Encore ticket may have been his.
This is a copy of the notes he took that day.
September 8, 2001: Bob Edmonds leaves a voice mail at the OLG. They call him back three days later and ask him to fax them any relevant information.
September 13, 2001: He sends a drawing describing where he was in the Coby Milk & Variety on July 27, 2001 when the winning ticket was validated.
The next day he sends a calendar indicating the day he first called OLG warning them his ticket had been stolen.
September 25, 2001: The OLG was concerned that not all customer complaints about stolen tickets were being recorded in the system. A memo is sent to the OLG call centre reminding call center representatives to do so.
January 4, 2002: Don Edmonds, Bob Edmonds' son, contacts the OLG to find out the status of his father's case only to be told that nothing has happened. He sent a fax to the OLG describing what happened on July 27, 2001 and his father's claim to the numbers on the original Super 7 ticket.
January 7, 2002: Don Edmonds contacts Ontario Provincial Police to update them on the status of his father's complaint.
January 14, 2002: OLG Prize Office supervisor Suzy Tan examines the facts in the Bob Edmonds complaint and writes an e-mail to senior OLG staff and lawyers. "The facts in Edmonds' claim are accurate," she writes. See the confidential e-mail.
January 25, 2002: The OLG denies any responsibility to Bob Edmonds. OLG lawyers send Bob Edmonds a letter stating that if he believes LaPlante stole his ticket, he should deal with her directly.
February 10, 2002: OPP Constable Al Lee interviews Bob Edmonds to record his testimony in the complaint.
March 1, 2002: OPP Constable Al Lee has collected enough evidence to suggest that Phyllis and Scott LaPlante stole Bob Edmonds's winning Encore ticket. This is the arrest report of Scott LaPlante.
This is the record of the call provided by Bell Canada.
Two weeks later (March 21, 2002), the OLG reveals that it did have a record of Bob Edmonds August 1 call.
March 8, 2002: Lawyer Allan Rachlin files a lawsuit against the OLG. This Statement of Claim describes the Bob Edmonds's allegations against the Corporation.
Six weeks later (April 17, 2002), the OLG files its Statement of Defence in which it refutes Bob Edmonds's accusations and presents its explanation of what happened.
April 30, 2002: The OLG files an affidavit of documents that they plan to use in their case. One of the documents is a complete Occurrence Report different from the one that the OLG gave to OPP Constable Al Lee.
The Occurrence Report filed in court includes new entries from September 3, 2001 to September 11, which indicate that the OLG knew about Bob Edmonds's claim on the ticket prior to January 2002. This is a document with the entries that were added.
March 17, 2005: The OLG makes an out-of-court settlement with Bob Edmonds, before jury deliberations in the trial can begin. Edmonds signs a confidentiality agreement as part of the deal.
August 20, 2005: Toronto Star freedom of information request reveals that the OLG spent $426,900 in legal fees to fight Bob Edmonds's case.
April 2, 2007: Bob Edmonds loses his battle with cancer.
The OLG had delivered a letter of apology to his lawyer a few days earlier,
but he didn't get a chance to read it. Read a news
story.
