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Seemed like a nice guy and with a name like Willis Willis he probably needed a break, like an extra millon bucks!
Cheated Texas lottery winner says he’s staying hopeful
11:52 AM CDT on Wednesday, October 28, 2009
By AVI SELK / The Dallas Morning News
Willis Willis is a man of few wants.
If he had a million dollars – and he almost did until, police say, a convenience store clerk tricked him out of his lottery winnings – he would get a root canal and send his daughters to college.
If there was anything left, the 67-year-old Grand Prairie man said, he might buy a set of golf clubs.
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For Willis, the more pressing question is when – or whether – he will see the first cent of the $1 million authorities say he won in a Mega Millions drawing in May.
Willis didn't realize he was a winner when he gave the ticket to the clerk, who handed him $2 back and cashed in on the big prize himself.
"I hope to have it in my hands as soon as I can possibly get it," Willis said Tuesday, the first day he has talked publicly about the case.
His lawyers might do more than hope.
"Mr. Willis should not be forced to sue to collect his prize," attorney Sean Breen warned in a letter sent on Monday to the Texas Lottery Commission.
Breen said the commission should have been suspicious when the clerk, "one of its own agents," claimed the prize. He wants it to give Willis the full amount immediately – even while police seek to recover the bulk of the cash and find the clerk, Pankaj Joshi – who may be as far away as Nepal by now.
Willis has been rolling with the punches since his lucked rolled in – and then right back out.
He called Joshi a "lowlife," but said he had never doubted the clerk's honesty in the four years he had bought tickets from him at the Lucky Food Store in Grand Prairie.
"I never noticed anything," said Willis, an out-of-work maintenance man. "I was always treated with respect."
Willis didn't find out about his missing million for weeks and thought his buddies were pulling his leg when he walked into his favorite sports bar and was told a lottery commission investigator had been asking around for him.
"I thought somebody was making this up," he said.
Even after the investigator took photocopies of Willis' old lottery slips – he has played the same numbers for a decade – and told him he might have won the drawing, he didn't immediately realize how much was at stake.
"Hey, I think I've won," he told his four daughters when he checked the Mega Millions Web site a few days later and saw five of his lucky numbers listed for the drawing.
Even then, Willis kept his wits about him.
"Nothing excites me to jumping up and down," he said.
At which point in the interview his attorney chimed in with some optimism:
"He's going to be plenty excited when they tell him he's getting his money," Breen said.
Cheated Texas lottery winner says he’s staying hopeful
11:52 AM CDT on Wednesday, October 28, 2009
By AVI SELK / The Dallas Morning News
Willis Willis is a man of few wants.
If he had a million dollars – and he almost did until, police say, a convenience store clerk tricked him out of his lottery winnings – he would get a root canal and send his daughters to college.
If there was anything left, the 67-year-old Grand Prairie man said, he might buy a set of golf clubs.
Also Online
Officials say Grand Prairie store clerk cashed customer's lottery ticket and fled
Blog: Crime
Check your lottery numbers
For Willis, the more pressing question is when – or whether – he will see the first cent of the $1 million authorities say he won in a Mega Millions drawing in May.
Willis didn't realize he was a winner when he gave the ticket to the clerk, who handed him $2 back and cashed in on the big prize himself.
"I hope to have it in my hands as soon as I can possibly get it," Willis said Tuesday, the first day he has talked publicly about the case.
His lawyers might do more than hope.
"Mr. Willis should not be forced to sue to collect his prize," attorney Sean Breen warned in a letter sent on Monday to the Texas Lottery Commission.
Breen said the commission should have been suspicious when the clerk, "one of its own agents," claimed the prize. He wants it to give Willis the full amount immediately – even while police seek to recover the bulk of the cash and find the clerk, Pankaj Joshi – who may be as far away as Nepal by now.
Willis has been rolling with the punches since his lucked rolled in – and then right back out.
He called Joshi a "lowlife," but said he had never doubted the clerk's honesty in the four years he had bought tickets from him at the Lucky Food Store in Grand Prairie.
"I never noticed anything," said Willis, an out-of-work maintenance man. "I was always treated with respect."
Willis didn't find out about his missing million for weeks and thought his buddies were pulling his leg when he walked into his favorite sports bar and was told a lottery commission investigator had been asking around for him.
"I thought somebody was making this up," he said.
Even after the investigator took photocopies of Willis' old lottery slips – he has played the same numbers for a decade – and told him he might have won the drawing, he didn't immediately realize how much was at stake.
"Hey, I think I've won," he told his four daughters when he checked the Mega Millions Web site a few days later and saw five of his lucky numbers listed for the drawing.
Even then, Willis kept his wits about him.
"Nothing excites me to jumping up and down," he said.
At which point in the interview his attorney chimed in with some optimism:
"He's going to be plenty excited when they tell him he's getting his money," Breen said.
