BTW, the machine generates random numbers, so Mindy wouldn't have received Gloria's numbers. Just dumb luck. Now, WTF is an 84 yr old going to do with $374M?
A small slip-up in common courtesy might just have been 84-year-old Gloria C. Mackenzie's lucky ticket.
At least one bystander says Mackenzie cut in line May 18 while waiting to purchase a Powerball lottery ticket, the same ticket that would win her $590 million, the largest undivided lottery jackpot in history.
In a statement released Wednesday, Mackenzie confirmed her lottery ticket nearly went to another woman in line, who Mackenzie says was "kind enough" to let her go ahead and buy her Quick Pick ticket first.
That woman, Mindy Crandell, later told ABC she had been in line with one of her daughters when Mackenzie stepped in front of her. The clerk offered to ring up Crandell first, but Crandell yielded to the elderly Mackenzie.
Weeks later, when Mackenzie stepped forward to claim the prize, Crandell's daughter pointed out the winner's similarity to the woman who had cut in front of them in line.
Reached for comment by Tampa Bay's WTSP, Crandell says she has no regrets about letting more than half a billion dollars slip through her fingers. "I'm not upset," she said. "I mean ... maybe there's something down the road, or she needed it more than we did. Whatever it was, it was meant to be that she had it."
Added her 10-year-old daughter, Mallory, "I hope she's blessed with it. Polite is better than being rich."
