Florida Woman Loses Lottery Winnings After USPS Blunder

A Florida woman lost the chance to collect lottery winnings after learning she would have to forfeit her prize money due to U.S. Postal Service blunder.

Sue Burgess of Ridge Manor was informed that she won $1,000 from Second Chance Lottery drawing on Jul. 29.

However, she was informed later on that she would have to forfeit her prize winnings to an alternate winner.

This was because USPS did not deliver the ticket to the lottery headquarters in Tallhasse.

Burgess was shocked to learn this as she believed that she followed Florida Lottery's instruction and sent her ticket through certified mail.

Burgess explained that she could have put the ticket in a dropbox at local office, but she felt that it would be safer if it were certified mail.

Based on the tracking information Burgess' package with the ticket arrived at a Tallahassee post office on Aug. 12.

However, it did not progress further from there.

Online postal service tracking found that the lottery office never received the ticket.

Burgess contacted the lottery office, in which she was told that "no ticket, no prize."

"That's why you choose certified mail. With COVID, I understand the mail is a little bit slow. But for safety sake, certified mail usually has priority," Burgess was quoted.

Second Chance Lottery called Burgess' situation an "unusual circumstance."

The lottery's statement said that if the package were to arrive at their headquarters with a stamp dated prior to the expiration timeline to claim the winnings, the claims processing department would pay the Florida woman's winnings.

Burgess originally received the word that she would not be receiving the money.

She then contacted the lottery's claims processing department who suggested to contact USPS to get more information on her package.

A USPS spokesperson said only the post office was investigating but did not know exactly what happened to the package.

USPS later also issued a statement of apology.

It added that it was investigating what happened to Burgess' package.

Burgess said she is doubtful that it will arrive at all as already six weeks had passed since she mailed the package.

Florida Lottery said in its statement that it tried to assure future winners that such an instance could be avoided.

Many of the restaurants and businesses in Florida have reopened including its local lottery offices.

You can bring your winning ticket in person there. However, you will need to make an appointment first.

USPS have received backlash after reports of mail theft and delivery slowdown brought by internal changes in the department.

Reports also revealed its lack of reliable system for tracking mail theft.

The Postal Inspection Service data discovered that mail theft reports have increased by 600 percent over the past three years.

This from 2017's figure which is 25,000 to about 177,000 through Aug. 24 of this year.

The Postal Inspection Service said the data actually reflect several types of complaints, not just those involving mail theft.

However, it argued that it could not provide figures on mail theft as there are limitations in the internal system it uses to get customer reports.

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