ARCADIA, Kan. — Three winning tickets for last weekend’s record $656 million Mega Millions drawing were sold, but no person has stepped forward to claim the prize. However, one dog has.
Princess, a golden retriever-poodle mix from Arcadia, Kansas, walked into her local lottery precinct with a verified winning ticket tucked in her collar. That would hypothetically award the dog $218 million before taxes.
“We were just shocked,” said Kristie Thornbug, the clerk who verified the ticket. “The dog’s collar gives a name but doesn’t give any contact information for the people who may own the dog. As far as we know, this is the dog’s winnings.”
The dog is currently being held at the facility until any owners show up to claim it. To protect against false claims, authorities will not hand her over until visual proof, as well as papers detailing Princess’s medical check-ups and shots records are provided.
Mega Millions officials are scratching their heads and hoping a legitimate owner steps forward. If no owners step forward, this would provide an unprecedented problem for the multi-jurisdictional lottery game. No dog has ever been awarded winnings on a nationwide lottery. However, towns in Texas, Mississippi and Georgia have given local-based lottery or instant game winnings to several animals in certain circumstances before laws were eventually enacted to prohibit the practice. One notable example is a domestic cat in Jacksonville winning $3 for successfully revealing a match on a scratchcard in 1983.
lucky dog. Looks like he will be getting that air-conditioned doghouse after all.
I always knew the lottery was for the dogs
That's a lot of money. I'm sure if the dog had its way, it would have all the designer dog accessories it could ever want right now.
i think the dog's owner is just around trolling the officials, but if the dog really has no owner, or possibly the owner died before he could claim his reward, and the dog kept the ticket around him, then the question would be how did the dog know that the ticket won, if he saw it in a newspaper or tv and just compared it with his ticket, then that's one smart dog