THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995 TAG: 9512090303
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Sometimes wrong is right.
Mac D. Spencer, 61, and his wife, Beatrice, 58, are the Virginia Lottery's newest Lotto winners. But they wouldn't have a $1.7 million jackpot if Spencer had played the numbers he meant to use.
``I wrote the numbers down wrong,'' the retired Coca-Cola Co. employee said Friday evening while relatives and friends laughed and celebrated at his home. ``But something just told me, `Play this number.' I've been playing it almost a year now.''
If that weren't lucky enough, consider this: The winning ticket has been sitting in the glove compartment of Spencer's car for six months. In fact, by 5:01 p.m. Monday, it would have been worthless.
The tale of Spencer's good fortune came to light Friday when he and his wife showed up at the Virginia Lottery's Hampton regional office. Surprised clerks quickly confirmed that the pink play slip with a single lottery number on it was the one they have been looking for.
The ticket was from the Lotto drawing of June 14. Winners have just 180 days to come forward and claim their prize, or it's given over to the State Literary Fund for teacher pensions and to make loans to local school districts.
Spencer said he had started playing the number - 10-14-16-17-19-41 - earlier in the year. But it was not the number he had been playing every week before that.
He had marked a play slip with the intended numbers - the ages of several family members - and had been using that slip each drawing. But the slip wore out over time.
Finally, earlier this year, ``the ticket wouldn't go through the machine,'' Spencer said. He transferred his numbers to a new slip, but made an error. He set the bad slip aside and wrote the correct numbers on yet another slip.
When he got to the counter, however, something told him to switch to the incorrect slip. He did.
And each drawing - including June 14 - he played that number and left the pink ticket in his car glove compartment.
Last week, with no winner having come forward and the deadline approaching, the Lottery Department launched a media blitz to hunt the winner.
``It seemed that I had heard that number before,'' Spencer said. ``But I didn't realize I had played it.''
He went to his car and retrieved his tickets, now numbering ``between 50 and 100.'' And there was the winning sequence, again and again. It was just a matter of finding the June 14 ticket.
He did.
The couple will get about $58,000 a year after taxes for 20 years. The first check, the Lottery Department said, is in the mail.
The couple plans to pay bills. Otherwise, the only thing he has planned is to ``take my wife on a vacation.''
Although Spencer was within days of losing his fortune, he didn't set a record. ``We had a Richmond winner who waited until the last day to come forward,'' said Lottery spokesman Ed Scarborough.
Spencer is just grateful he wasn't a stickler for accuracy.
``Thank God,'' Spencer said. ``The way it turned out, yes indeedy, I am glad I did play the wrong one.''
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA LOTTERY WINNER by CNB