CBC News: the fifth estate - Luck of the Draw: Bob Sehested's Story

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Aired October 25, 2006
Updated March 14, 2007

WATCH the fifth estate ONLINE:

October 25, 2006
Runs 40:19
November 22, 2006
Runs 21:00
March 14, 2007
Runs 19:17
REPORTER: Gillian Findlay
PRODUCER: Harvey Cashore
CO-PRODUCER:
Linda Guerriero
RESEARCHER:
Albert Lee

Video available in Windows Media Player.

BOB EDMONDS: WHISTLEBLOWER

Bob Edmonds, whose story started the fifth estate's lottery investigation, died on April 2, 2007. Read a news story.

BY THE NUMBERS

the fifth estate asked statistician Jeffrey Rosenthal to look at the OLG's numbers. Here's the analysis.

BOB SEHESTED'S STORY

On February 14, 2006, Bob Sehested walked into the Crossroads Liquor Store and Market in Camarillo, California and bought 50 Mega Lottery tickets to celebrate his 50th birthday hoping to win the $500,000 jackpot.

Bob Sehested enjoys a holiday in Mexico with the money he got from a lottery he didn't realize he'd won.

Rather than check all 50 tickets by hand, he used the self-serve lottery terminal at the liquor store where he bought the tickets to see if he'd won anything. Most of his tickets weren't worth anything, but when he scanned one ticket, the machine told him to "See the retailer." When he handed his winning ticket to the clerk, Sehested was told that he'd won "a few bucks". He took his $4, bought some more lottery tickets, and left the store not knowing he'd just been scammed.

Lottery official: story seemed suspicious

The California Lottery Commission was suspicious after the clerk tried to claim the $530,858 USD prize with Sehested's ticket. The clerk was unable to answer such simple questions as where he purchased the ticket or whether it was a "quick pick" of randomly selected numbers.

Lottery officials weren't certain that the ticket belonged to him so instead of handing over the money, they wanted to identify who bought the winning ticket. The California Lottery knew the winning ticket was sold at the Crossroads Liquor Store and they were able to secure surveillance video that was recorded when the winning ticket was sold.

The convenience store videotape showed that Bob had puchased the winning ticket.

They saw that it was a customer and not the clerk who purchased the ticket. They wanted the help of the public to identify the person in the video. So, they released a few minutes of the footage to local television stations and onto their website and waited, hoping that someone would come forward and identify the real winner.

Finding the real winner

After hearing all the stories in the media about the search for a mystery winner, Sehested found himself visiting the California Lottery website hoping that he might know the person on the video. And what he saw surprised him. He couldn't believe his eyes. In the grainy movie file, he saw himself and his wife. "I thought, ‘It's got to be a mistake' because I already checked my tickets and I didn't win." He immediately called lottery officials and identified that he was the person in the video. And after an extensive interview, he was declared the rightful owner of the ticket and the winner of the $500,000 jackpot.

The liquor store clerk who took the ticket, Sam Grair, was suspended from his job and has been charged with grand theft, burglary and attempting to fraud a government agency. He will be sentenced on November 17, 2006 and if convicted of all charges, he faces up to 19 years in state prison.

The store surveillance video was critical to finding the rightful owner of the winning ticket.

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