A California woman who claimed to be the winner of the $1.08 billion Powerball prize last week is being called out on social media for lying.
On July 20, a day after the announcement that the sole Powerball jackpot ticket had been sold in California, a Black woman was recorded celebrating and shedding tears of joy in disbelief that she won the Powerball. The woman was filmed crying by local media and bystanders inside of the downtown Los Angeles store where the winning ticket was sold.
Seemingly overwhelmed by joy, she declined to do an interview and ran outside of the store.
“She came in here and she screamed … She hugged people in the store and then she ran away,” KTLA 5 News reporter Eric Spillman said at the time. “She claims that she has the winning Powerball jackpot ticket.”
She was spotted getting inside a dark-colored BMW with tinted windows and driving away.
According to Sarai Palacios, the store owner’s granddaughter, it was all a hoax, and she did it just for the extra attention.
“She didn’t win. I’m not sure why she did that. I guess she just wanted to be on TV,” Palacios told the Daily Mail. “We don’t know who the winner is yet. They still haven’t come forward.”
Lottery rules give the winner up to a year to submit a prize claim form and verify their winnings through a lengthy process, according to the Insider.
The fake winner also got the attention of social media users that she so desperately wanted. They compared the woman lying to Carlee Russell, who recently admitted her kidnapping story was a hoax, and Jussie Smollett, who falsely claimed he was a victim of a hate crime in 2019.
“What is going on!?! It’s been ENOUGH lies on tv these last 2 weeks. #CarleeRussell fake kidnapping and now this woman lying about winning the #Powerball in California. All of this for clicks & likes for social. Social Media is a helluva drug. Smh,” wrote one Twitter user.
Another user wrote, “She need an emmy.”
“She was COMMITTED honey!!” wrote another user.
Despite being exposed, the woman will not face any criminal charges because she never attempted to claim the prize money, but lottery history is rife with instances of people trying to claim a large lottery prize that they didn’t win.
Edwin Castro, the California man, who won the record-breaking $2.04 billion Powerball prize in November 2022, is being sued by a man who claims Castro stole the ticket from him. It took officials three months to verify Castro’s winnings, but they are sure he is the winner.
