Unclaimed California Powerball Jackpot Sparks Hoaxes, Rumors and Intrigue

There are no shortages of conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and rumors surrounding the Chino Hills winner of Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot.

News headlines loudly and wrongly proclaimed the winner identified.

Pictures of the winning ticket worth $528.8 million proliferated on Instagram.

Wishful narratives spread: an elderly nurse is suddenly a multimillionaire hundreds of times over. Other tales were less inspiring: the FBI-dogged multimillionaire owner of a nursing home empire bought the winning ticket.

But, as America’s week of jackpot fever came to a close, there is only one certainty: no one has come forward to claim the prize. And no one will be able to until Tuesday due to the Martin Luther King holiday.

“No one has set foot in one of our nine district offices to claim the Jackpot from Chino Hills,” said California Lottery spokesman Greg Parashak. ”Only when that happens, can we verify the winner.”

It’s a phrase he had memorized and repeated over and over again to reporters trying to track down that jackpot winner.

At the district offices, staffers waited and watched the clock.

“Twelve minutes left,” Parashak said Friday as 5 p.m. approached.

“We’ve seen the ticket on Instagram. We’ve been seeing all the same stories you have,” said Parashak. “We usually don’t see circumstance like this where different people are claiming to be the winner, though.”

Parashak urged skepticism.

Should there be any dispute about who owns the winning ticket, lottery officials employ investigators adept at sussing out the truth, he said.

If the ticket was purchased as a gift, which is common, officials require both the recipient and the person who purchased the ticket to come into the office to authenticate it.

“We do everything we can verify the winner,” said Parashak.

On Thursday, a spokesman for nursing home owner Shlomo Rechnitz told the Jewish Journal a winning ticket was given by Rechnitz to a 62-year-old nurse at Park Avenue Healthcare and Wellness Center in Pomona. The spokesman said it was one of 18,000 Powerball tickets Rechnitz purchased and distributed to employees and patients at all of the nursing homes he owns, but Lottery officials quickly expressed skepticism, insisting no one had yet come forward with a valid winning ticket.

A short time later, one of the nurse’s daughters told the Los Angeles Times there was a misunderstanding about the ticket, and she had not actually won the jackpot.

In the state of California, lottery winners are, by law, publicly identified.

Whoever is holding that winning ticket should take precautions, warned Parashak. They probably have a lot on their mind and are thinking about getting a financial adviser as soon as possible, but they should bring it in right away, he added. The jackpot winner has one year from the drawing date to collect the winnings.

“We encourage them to sign the ticket,” said Parashak. “And keep it in a safe place.”

More Powerball coverage on Patch:

• LA Powerball Winner: ‘I‘m a Little Sad’
• 3 Winning Powerball Tickets for $1.5 Billion Sold, One in Chino Hills, CA
• Nurse May Not Have Won Piece of Powerball After All
• Crowds Swarm Chino Hills Store That Sold Winning Powerball Ticket

City News Service contributed to this report.