A Key Biscayne woman said a winning lottery ticket ended up being switched for a losing one after she presented it to a store clerk at the Winn-Dixie grocery store.
A Winn-Dixie manager on Saturday disputed the claim.
Andrea Mata told Key Biscayne police she visited Winn-Dixie Jan. 25 to check “about 10 tickets,” handing them to the lottery machine attendant for verification of any potential winners.
Mata told police the computer screen facing customers showed she had a winning ticket worth $7,000.
The female attendant, Mata told the Independent in an interview Saturday, couldn’t see the computer screen read out of the winning ticket because it faces out from the kiosk.
The attendant asked her the amount of the prize before requesting the winning ticket back in order to print out directions to the Florida Lottery district office where the money could be collected, Mata said. The police report included a photo of one ticket showing a purchase date of August 2022.
Mata said she was with her nephew, a toddler, and was distracted when the clerk handed her back the directions to the district office and just one ticket – which she presumed was the winner.