Friday, December 22, 2023, 8:04 p.m.
It was “a very ugly number.” So ugly that, when Balsapintada neighbor Sabrina Cantero had it in her hands last Wednesday, she asked the person in charge of the mixed lottery point at the town's House of Culture, Joaquín Conesa, to exchange it for another one. “Don't worry, this is for sale,” he told her before accepting the claim and keeping the 88008 stuck on the window, waiting for someone to take it. That's why he couldn't believe it when he found out that he had won the Christmas Lottery Jackpot.
“Now I just want to cry!” she acknowledged this Friday, minutes after the award was made public, leaning on the bar of the same establishment where she bought the wrong number, to share it with four of her colleagues from the Recacor workshop, just 350 meters from there, at the entrance to the Murcian district, where she works as an administrator. The machine spit out, on the second try, 49033. «I thought that with the other one, my colleagues were going to tell me off. When I saw the 88008 come out I couldn't believe it! “She remembered me perfectly,” she said between her laughter and her moan, before the attentive gaze of Joaquín, who, in an attempt to console her, offered him to take something from her. “What coffee should I give you?” “What a damn!”
The number refused to come out. He finally did it at 1:16 p.m., after having to wait until the ninth table, becoming the latest Jackpot in history. Never in 213 editions has it been so delayed.
Eight points in the Region
The 88008 arrived in the Region distributed in eight points of sale located in as many municipalities. One tenth was sold in each place: in the capital, in Fuente Álamo, Molina de Segura, Alcantarilla, Mazarrón, Bullas and San Pedro del Pinatar. At the administration on Calle Larga, in Mazarrón, they thought they had sold it, but finally they verified that they returned the tenths.
«In the workshop we shared the number five companions – explained Sabrina –. “We wouldn't have gotten rich, but we had 80,000 euros each.”
Very close to the workshop, in one of the crops that surround the town, a group of about a dozen seasonal workers were collecting lettuce under a large machine and dressed in yellow vests. Maybe one of them was the one who decided to take the tenth rejected by Sabrina and that in a second, it went from worth 20 euros to 400,000. “That's what they think, that some farm worker ended up taking it,” said Antonio Caballero, commercial representative of Recacor, sitting next to Sabrina. “What can we do?”.
At the House of Culture they know what luck and the lack of it is. Last week, they sold a Bonoloto raffle ticket with which a neighbor won 60,000 euros. Good luck. “He was one number short of winning three million.” Bad.
In Alcantarilla, in administration number 3 on Reyes Católicos Avenue, the owner of the premises, Antolín, exuded happiness. «They have given me a beautiful surprise. “It is an immense, indescribable joy, especially after selling a fifth prize.” In 'The Tree of Dreams', in the Molina urbanization of La Alcayna, they will not forget this December 22 either. Also after distributing a fifth and putting the icing on the cake with the Grand Prize. “No one can take away our enthusiasm,” Samy, one of the sellers, told LA VERDAD. In San Pedro del Pinatar, the number was sold by the 'El Perolo' administration, on Gabriel Cañadas Street, number 17. And in Bullas, the prize was sold at the administration on Tercia Street, number 1.
Ten tenths returned
The lack of attractiveness of 88008 also took its toll on Mazarrón. In administration number 3 of the town, known as 'El Dólar', a prize was celebrated early in the afternoon that later turned out not to have been sold. «I am super happy; very excited It is the best reward for so many months of work,” Javier Meroño, the owner of the office, assured LA VERDAD, before being informed that, in reality, those ten tenths, worth four million euros, ended up being returned on Thursday. at night, because no one had wanted to buy them, as confirmed by the delegate of Betting and State Lotteries in the Region, José Laorden late in the afternoon.
The same thing would happen to the possible winners as to Sabrina. Too many eights. «I preferred to take a more 'beautiful' one. Now I want to die! », She pointed out before confessing that after the initial 'swallow me dirt', she had another thought. “The only thing she thought was that I wish Joaquín hadn't sold it and he had kept it.” It wasn't like that either. “May it be someone who needs it,” she wishes. “Come on, give me a coffee with milk,” she says. No bullshit. She knows what she plays. “We will have to continue working.”
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