Queen Of Hearts $15,000 Winner Sues Plainfield American Legion

PLAINFIELD, IL —A Plainfield resident who calls himself "Big Vic" hired Plainfield attorney John Schrock to file a civil lawsuit against Plainfield American Legion Marne Post 13 contending that the post failed to pay him $15,000 for winning the Queen of Hearts card game on April 21.

According to court documents filed by John Schrock Law, his client, whose real name is Vic Wildenradt, bought six tickets for $5 from the bartender at the Plainfield American Legion in preparation for the April 21 drawing.

The Facebook Live video of the drawing is posted at the bottom of this story.

On April 21, Wildenradt "was the winner ticket and that allowed plaintiff's selected card number on his ticket to pick a card from the deck of the cards," Schrock's lawsuit stated.

According to Schrock, the jackpot for the April 21 Queen of Hearts game was $15,000.

The lawsuit notes that "the defendants' employee who was conducting the Queen of Hearts game on April 21 called (Wildenradt) and advised plaintiff that plaintiff had won the Queen of Hearts jackpot of $15,000."

Schrock argues that the rules published by the Plainfield American Legion on its website as of April 17 when Wildenradt purchased his tickets "constitutes an offer to pay to the winning ticket purchaser and subsequent purchaser who draws the Queen of Hearts card, the Queen of Hearts jackpot."

The Plainfield man's lawsuit accuses the Plainfield American Legion of having "breached the contract by failing to pay ... the $15,000 jackpot."

Schrock has asked a Will County judge to find in his client's favor and make the Plainfield American Legion Marne Post 13 pay Wildenradt a sum of $15,000 plus costs.

During this week's interview with Joliet Patch, Plainfield American Legion Commander James Castaneda explained that Wildenradt did not follow the proper rules in regard to keeping his winning ticket. Therefore, according to the commander, the Legion was on solid ground for not paying out the $15,000 Queen of Hearts winning ticket to the man who simply signed his name on his Queen of Hearts tickets as "Big Vic" and then threw away his set of tickets — including the winner — into the garbage.

The rules are the rules, insisted Castaneda, who runs the Queen of Hearts drawing at the Plainfield legion and the Queen of Hearts drawing is held every Friday at 8 p.m. and Castaneda conducts it through Facebook Live.

He insisted there are several signs posted throughout the building informing people that they must fill out their name and retain their half of their ticket, which includes a serial number, that way, Castaneda can make sure both tickets match as the winner.

In the April 21 controversy, Wildenradt didn't sign his real name, he signed his ticket as "Big Vic," Castaneda said, and then Wildenradt didn't retain his half of the winning ticket.

"So we got him on video clearly buying the tickets ... it's clear he threw them into the garbage. It clearly shows he threw them away himself," Castaneda informed Patch.

According to the 15-minute-long Facebook Live video posted of the April 21 event, the following are some of the pivotal moments during the Queen of Hearts drawing:

Around the 10-minute mark: Castaneda pulls out a card, reads the name and tells everyone: "Big Vic. He's got a phone number. I'll figure it out what his name is. But he's got a phone number and a card number, so he did buy No. 22. B-L-G , V-I-C or L. I mean, come on, guy!

"So this lucky person picked card 22. Here we go, here we go, 22, drum roll please."

Around the 10:45 minute mark: Castaneda smiles, shakes his head and exclaims, "What the f*** as he laughs, paces and then announces, "All right guys. Wow. That was quick. I have a lucky person that can't write their name legible."

Around the 11:05 minute mark: Castaneda holds up the Queen of Hearts and people in the bar excitedly yell, "Ahhh!" and "Ohhh! Queen of Hearts."

"I don't know who you are, my friend, hopefully, you are watching me on Facebook, I'm about to call you."

Around the 11:55 minute mark: Castaneda gets on the phone and says, "Hey, Vic. Hey, what did you write on your ticket at the Queen of Hearts in Plainfield?"

The voice on the phone is heard saying, "22."

"But you wrote like, is it Big Vic? Are you calling yourself Big Vic? Hey Big Vic, you got everybody listening to you here at the Plainfield American Legion. I don't know if you can make it here today or tomorrow, but you're one lucky son of a gun. Go get a lottery ticket. You got the Queen of Hearts my man."

Around the 12:30 minute mark: After hearing lots of crowd cheering, Castaneda says over the phone, "Hey, so congratulations. I think rounds are on the house on you, is that correct?

"Oh! He said he'll be here in five minutes ... I'll see you in five minutes."

Castaneda told Patch that when he met with the man who signed his Queen of Hearts tickets as "Big Vic," he told him he needed to see Wildenradt's ticket to claim the victory prize.

"I said do you have your side of the ticket half, and he told me 'No.' What do you mean, no?" Castaneda said he replied.

And that's when Wildenradt told him, "No man, I threw it away," Castaneda recalled.

Castaneda said the rules posted throughout the Plainfield American Legion and at that tables inside the bar, state: "you must retain your half of the ticket to verify that you are the winner of the other ticket. You must retain your half."

Angry that Big Vic was not being paid the $15,000 jackpot, a friend of his warned the Plainfield American Legion commander, "this ain't going to go well for the Legion," Castaneda said he remembered being told.

In the aftermath of the controversy with Wildenradt, the Plainfield American Legion kept the Queen of Hearts jackpot going and at the next Friday night drawing, a young woman won the $15,000 jackpot. She brought in her half of the ticket to confirm her prize, the commander said.

"Whether it's $25, $50, $200, whatever, they give me their ticket and I pay them," Castaneda said. "We as a post are here for our veterans, and I don't need negative people like that disrespecting our post. This is for me to bring people from the community out and our veterans out."

During a phone interview with Joliet Patch late Thursday afternoon, Wildenradt said he spent $150 that Friday night, buying everyone a round of drinks in the Plainfield American Legion as they hailed him Plainfield's Queen of Hearts winner.

Long before filing his lawsuit, Wildenradt said he printed out a copy of the Plainfield American Legion's website rules that were posted on April 21. He said those rules did not mention anything about the winner being obligated to save half of their ticket to claim their Queen of Hearts prize.

On Saturday, April 22, the Plainfield resident was told they were not going to pay out the Queen of Hearts ticket and they offered him $500 in return.

On Monday, April 24, after Wildenradt met with Castaneda in person at the Legion, Wildenradt said he learned that having a second ticket was added to the online rules. After hearing that, Wildenradt said he showed the Plainfield commander his printed out copy of the rules from the website.

The plaintiff told Patch he refused to accept the $500, telling Patch "it was a random amount not printed in the rules."

During the April 24 dispute at the legion, Wildenradt said one of the men went into an office safe and showed him three winning Queen of Hearts tickets, in which the winners submitted their second matching ticket.

Wildenradt said he then asked to see all the winning tickets inside the safe to make sure everyone had a matching second ticket.

"And they refused, and that's when they got really defensive because I busted them," Wildenradt said.

He recalled the Queen of Hearts representatives told him, "that I did not respect the veterans."

During Thursday's interview, Wildenradt told Patch his "father, brother and grandfather are all military veterans, and I'm a Sons of the American Revolution Award winner. I'm as patriotic as it gets, and no one would ever question my patriotism. I don't want to take them down. What's right is right here."

One last thing: Wildenradt explained he uses the name "Big Vic" in random chance raffle drawings because it's been good luck for him in the past.